Fire protection in Falcon has improved considerably in the past 46 years. The organization that was established in 1975 as Falcon Volunteer Fire Department with one station, one vehicle and 15 members has grown to what is now Falcon Fire Protection District, with five stations, 55 paid firefighters and 23 vehicles.Jerry Marriott was one of the founders of the fire department, and he spent 20 years as a firefighter. He said distance motivated him to become a firefighter and form the Falcon Volunteer Fire Department because the nearest fire station was a volunteer station several miles away, near the intersection of Woodmen Road and I 25. ìI am the only one alive today,î Marriott said of the original 15 volunteers who started the fire department. ìIt was a good experience for me. I learned a lot as a firefighter.îThe organization of the volunteer fire department began in January 1975, but it was June before they were able to respond to a fire. According to the fire district’s website, on that first day there were three calls, which kept the firefighters busy until after midnight.In those days, long-time Falcon resident Kathy Hare, a consultant for the NFH and former writer for the NFH, said the area had more of a sense of community back then. Everyone knew everyone and most people were involved in either the fire station or the school system or both. Hareís husband, Mike, was one of the first firefighters.The first fire station was a mule barn on Cottontail Drive near Highway 24. Marriott said the volunteers had to shovel out 2 1/2 feet of manure before they could pour a concrete floor. Volunteers also installed electricity and heat in the building. But Marriott said there was never a bathroom installed in the old barn. An old U.S. Army weapons carrier served as their first vehicle.Back then, 911 did not exist. To report a fire, a person had to call the sheriff’s office. Volunteers were alerted by pagers, which would emit a tone and give the location of the fire. Marriott said many of the male firefighters had day jobs so there were six or seven female firefighters who would respond to fires during the day.What is now the old station 3 at the intersection of Old Meridian Road and Highway 24 was the first new building for the fire department. Marriott said it was built entirely by volunteer firefighters under his supervision. ìWe worked every Wednesday night and Saturday for three years,î he said, adding that he alone put in 1,000 hours on the project.Marriott said, ìI begged, borrowed and stole everything I couldî to build the new building. The volunteers tore down three buildings for the cinder blocks. He said they did not have paint for the new building so it had a speckled finish from the different colors of paint originally applied to the used blocks.One Saturday morning, three concrete trucks showed up at the building site, but no volunteers. So Marriott called the sheriff’s office and reported a fire at the location of the building site. Soon, he had plenty of help from volunteers who thought they were responding to a fire. While they built the new fire station, the firefighters were training three times a week and responding to fires.ìThe biggest problem was getting water for fires,î Marriott said. It was one of his responsibilities, between fires, to find ponds and get permission from the owners to use their water for firefighting. They had a portable tank, similar to an above-ground swimming pool that they would set up at the scene of a fire and fill it with water from tankers. He said they would often call for other fire departments to send tankers.In the beginning, Marriott said response times could be as long as 30 minutes.Another of the original firefighters was Chuck Petersma. His son, Jeff, was just 12 months old when the fire department was organized. An article in the September 2005 issue of The New Falcon Herald by Kathy Hare quoted Pam, Chuck’s wife: ìI was glad Jeff was born in 1974 because his father spent so many hours volunteering, if the department started a year earlier, well, Jeff wouldn’t be here.îJeff Petersma grew up in the fire department and remembers helping with grass fires as a boy. ìWhen I graduated, I expected to be a firefighter,î he said. The young Petersma became a volunteer at age 17. ìAlmost all of my senior year in high school I was a firefighter,î he said. In 2000, he became one of the first paid firefighters. Petersma will soon complete 30 years of service and currently serves as assistant chief.The current chief, Trent Harwig, started as a volunteer in 1997, after his brother ìhoundedî him to become a firefighter. He said he was working in his father-in-law’s transmission shop when he met Dan Kupferer, one of the first Falcon firefighters and currently a member of the board. ìHe kind of recruited me,î Harwig said. He eventually became a paid firefighter and said he never dreamed that in 2003 he would be named fire chief.Harwig said the Falcon Fire Protection District was created in 1981, which meant that property taxes in the district would be used to pay firefighters and finance the firefighting operations. ìWe are property tax based; local voters decide the level of funding,î he said. At first, Harwig said the paid firefighters were only on duty during the day Monday through Friday. The volunteers answered fire calls in the evenings and on weekends. As more firefighters were hired, what is now the old station 3 was manned 24/7.The website for the district states that it encompasses 113 square miles. According to figures released in 2018 by the El Paso County Assessor, there are 66,300 people living in the district with 16,100 structures at a market value of $4.2 million.Today, the district has 23 vehicles and 55 full-time and 10 part-time firefighters operating out of three manned stations. There are six firefighters on duty at each station. The district also has two unmanned stations, one on Jones Road, which is used for storage; a mechanic operates out of the other building on North Meridian Road.In 2020, the district responded to 3005 calls.The new station 3 recently became operational and the old station 3 will be remodeled as a new administration building. Harwigís office is currently in the old station 3. He said the old station 3, as is, does not have the space to accommodate additional administrative personnel. Also, it was not built to house modern fire engines. The clearance at the top of the bay doors is so close that snow has to be kept clear of the driveways to allow for the fire engines to enter and leave the station.Harwig said the remodeling of the old station 3 will begin in December, and is scheduled for completion in July 2022. When the remodeling is completed, the district will hire additional administrative personnel.In the future, the chief said he hopes to have personnel for commercial and business fire inspections. He would also like to have a training facility. Currently, the district firefighters have to go to military installations for training, usually the U.S. Air Force Academy.One of the biggest improvements to FFPD, in Harwigís opinion, has been the addition of a life support ambulance system. ìThere have been a lot of lives saved,î he said.Next year, the district will hire six more firefighters, bringing the total to 61. Harwig said that any hiring after that time will require either a new fire station or using the currently unmanned station on North Meridian Road.ìThis department is nothing but change,î Harwig said. ìAnd it has been exciting and rewarding trying to keep up with it.î
