Colorado fire rescue agency trains in high buildings in the high country
There's very few buildings you could begin to call skyscrapers in the mountains, and that's intentional. Still, more and more buildings are going up in Summit County along with building renovations and it's pushing Red White and Blue Fire Rescue, a firefighting operation out of Breckenridge, to brush up on training to fight fires in buildings with more than two stories.
Thursday, they took on a fake fire at a new hotel in Frisco with four floors; staggering from mountain-building perspective.
It had been almost 10 years since Red, White, and Blue Fire Rescue has done drills away from its training tower, according to Eric Johnson, a county training representative.
"This is obviously a lot bigger than the training tower, has a lot of nuisances in terms of coordinating five engines and all the crews, do all the safety precautions we need to put in place," Johnson said. "Get to the fire quickly, put the fire out, rescue a victim and do all that in a low visibility environment."
Crews had to battle their way into the building and up to the fourth floor, which was filled with haunted house smoke so thick you couldn't see your outstretched hand in front of your face. It's a demanding call, and almost all fire calls are, but it's not something they're used to tackling in tall buildings in mountain communities.
"We are in a smaller community with less resources, so we need to practice, train and be really light fast and efficient," Johnson said.
Chances of a building with this many floors (or more) are relatively low considering the average building, or landmass for that matter.
"Summit County is surrounded by forest, but we are all-hazard," Johnson said. "When the call comes out we never know what it is going to be and we need to be ready for anything that we can prepare for."
