The Falcon Fire Protection Districtís regular board meeting was held in July with all members present except newly-elected director Greg Heule, who was the public information officer for the Waldo Canyon Fire.Waldo Canyon Fire informationFFPD Chief Trent Harwig presented information regarding the districtís involvement with the Waldo Canyon Fire. The FFPD logged 721 personnel hours, 673 of which were overtime hours. Twenty-four hours were spent at the incident command post at Holmes Middle School, Harwig said. The district had two engines involved ñ one was on the frontline of the fire.Harwig said he heard concerns from some citizens about the districtís lack of involvement when the fire started. ìWe werenít called up because it was in a national forest,î he said. ìThe FFPD became involved on June 26. We dispatched one engine to Mountain Shadows then we went to Highway 24 between Manitou Springs and Green Mountain Falls to keep the fire from crossing it.ìThe firefighters were on 24 hours a day straight. Sometimes, they rotated on 16-hour shifts and sometimes they worked the full 24 hours.îWith overtime hours and truck hours combined, Harwig said the district expects to receive about $28,000 in reimbursements from the city of Colorado Springs. Harwig said they would have been involved regardless of the pay.ìWe were fully staffed at our district the entire time we had people fighting the Waldo Canyon fire,î he said.2009 International Fire Code updateBattalion Chief Vernon Champlin addressed the board to ask for guidance regarding the 2009 IFC. The FFPD and several other special districts had proposed amendments to the 2009 IFC that the Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs initially rejected. The HBA objected to a requirement that sprinklers be installed on all new residential structures 6,000 square feet and larger. However, the 2003 IFC already includes that requirement.After the FFPD submitted the proposed amendments, the HBA was allowed a comment period to address the amendments. The HBA sent comments to the FFPD, which the FFPD reviewed. Champlin said the district worked on a compromise.The FFPD amended the amendments to allow cisterns instead of sprinkler systems to meet the water supply requirements, Champlin said. The cisterns would hold several thousand gallons of water, which the FFPD could tap into in the event of a fire.ìWe are much better off with hydrants,î Harwig said. ìBut, we do think that meeting the fire flow (water supply) requirements is a much better way to go, and we have changed the amendments to reflect that rather than the square-footage requirement.îHarwig said the next step is determining if the fire flow requirements should be applied to new developments or all developments. Some existing subdivisions donít meet the fire flow requirement by having a cistern in place to provide water for firefighters to use, he said. Those subdivisions pay into a rural water fund, which pays for water to be brought in to areas without central water, cisterns or sprinklers, Harwig said.ìThe fairest approach would be that the development must meet the fire flow requirement, but give the developer an opportunity to participate in the rural water fund, instead of installing a cistern or sprinklers,î Harwig said. The rural water fund costs $1,300 per lot, he said.Dan Kupferer, vice president, said that if the district uses the rural water fund as an alternative to the fire flow requirement, the fees need to be adjusted to be in alignment with the true cost of bringing water to the site.Meanwhile, three new residential projects have surfaced for the FFPD to review, Champlin said. According to the 2003 IFC, which is the most current IFC adopted by the district, all three projects would require a sprinkler system, he said. ìIf we had the 2009 IFC in place, these houses wouldnít need to have sprinklers, which will cost about $10, 000,î Champlin said.Harwig said he would finalize the amendments and bring them back in August for the board to review.The 2009 IFC was on the El Paso County Board of County Commissionersí agenda in June but was removed before it could be addressed. Harwig said he was told by county attorney Amy Folsom that the 2009 IFC has been indefinitely removed from the BOCCís agenda.Pension board meetingThe regular meeting recessed to convene the pension board meeting, where the board passed a resolution establishing the 2011 and 2012 pension fund budget.Other newsThe board unanimously passed the districtís amended budget for both 2011 and 2012.Harwig said that the district has made an offer to someone for the new lieutenant position and should have an answer by Aug 1.Part-time training Lt. Glenn Levy said he is working on developing a lateral reserve academy that would allow the district to bring more people on board. He said he anticipates its completion by the second or third week of August.
