After 40 years of service with the Falcon Fire Protection District, on April 15, Dan Kupferer ended his stint as a FFPD board director because of term limits.ìThere’s nothing here that Dan hasn’t been involved in,î said Chief Trent Harwig.ìIn fact, he recruited me. We were volunteers together.îKupferer was involved in helping an all-volunteer fire department with one station grow to a department with three manned stations and an advanced life support ambulance service. Harwig said Kupferer was also involved in acquiring every piece of apparatus in the department. In 1978, Kupferer moved to Falcon; in his first interaction with the then Falcon Volunteer Fire Department, he had to get a letter of commitment from the fire department for a subdivision he was working on as a civil draftsman.In February 1980, he became a volunteer firefighter; in 1981, the department transitioned to a fire protection district with paid firefighters. Kupferer worked his way up the ranks of the fire department, and retired as assistant chief on Jan. 1, 2000.Kupferer was the assistant chief when Harwig came on board as a volunteer.In May 2000, Kupferer was elected to the FFPD board; and, since that time, he has been elected to another four-year term or appointed to fill a vacant term. For the past four years, he has served as board president.His career as a civil draftsman and later as a professional land surveyor helped him understand the development process and how it impacts the department, Kupferer said. He was involved in the construction of the last four fire stations, creating the plat and preparing site plans.He said the people of the district have been supportive from the beginning. While they haven’t always approved mill levy increases, they have come through when it really mattered, he said. In the election of November 2018, they approved the levy increase for the advanced life support ambulance service. Kupferer said he will miss interfacing with the dedicated professional personnel that make up the department and its governing board.
