News Article

Summit Fire & EMS recognized a Silverthorne resident for her neighborhood leadership on wildfire preparedness while also honoring its own members for public safety and life saving efforts. During the fire protection district’s three internal work-shift award ceremonies on Thursday, Nov. 2, 42 emergency responders were cited for saving lives in six separate incidents over the past year. One of those incidents involved Summit Fire & EMS crews providing advanced life support to a newborn who had gone into cardiac arrest, according to a news release from the fire protection agency.

Aided by cooler temperatures and wet weather, local officials are moving Summit County’s fire danger level from moderate to low, according to a statement from Summit Fire & EMS Wildland Division Coordinator Kyle Iseminger. “We have yet to see the drying trend we normally see in the fall,” Iseminger wrote on Thursday, Sept. 14, adding conditions and danger levels will continue to be evaluated on a weekly basis. Read more ... 

The Preliminary Site Plan to construct a fire station in Silverthorne on Blue River Parkway was approved Tuesday night by the town’s planning commission. The long-awaited station is finally on its way to Silverthorne after almost two decades of discussion. Read more ... 

Even as the wildfire season in Summit County has remained calm thus far, Summit Fire & EMS firefighters are gaining real-world experience fighting fires elsewhere in the West. A three-person crew — the second of three consecutive crews that Summit Fire & EMS will deploy this month — recently battled a wildfire near California’s southern border, amid 60 mph winds as Tropical Storm Hilary pushed into the state.

Amid a strong monsoon pattern that has brought heavy rain, thunder and lightning to Summit County over the past two weeks, local emergency officials are reminding those who enjoy the outdoors about the danger of lightning strikes.Recent storms have sometimes brought hundreds of lightning strikes per day to the county, according to Summit Fire & EMS officials, posing a real danger to hikers, bikers, golfers, campers, boaters or anyone caught outside.

The U.S. Forest Service quickly extinguished a small wildfire that a lightning strike near Frisco ignited on Monday, July 31. The small wildfire is one of several that have started as Summit County has been bombarded by monsoon weather in recent days. In the past two weeks, the Forest Service has responded to three wildfires started from lightning strikes.

About 20 firefighters in Summit County were battling a small wildfire just north of Frisco near Lily Pad Lake. 

Read more ... 

U.S. Forest Service officials are poised to reconsider wildfire danger in Summit County and beyond following a small wildfire. Currently, the county and surrounding region remain at low risk for wildfires, thanks in part to significant ground moisture from a snowy winter and rainy spring. Sunday’s fire, which was reported at around 12:30 p.m. after sparking near the Meadow Creek trailhead, billowed smoke that could be seen from Interstate 70 near Frisco. About 20 firefighters were called to the scene as three engines and a Forest Service-contracted helicopter worked to quell the flames.

A smoke sighting in the area of the Meadow Creek trailhead on Sunday, July 9, prompted an investigation by the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and Summit Fire & EMS. The Meadow Creek trailhead, just off Interstate 70 near Frisco, was closed to traffic by law enforcement at about 1:30 p.m. A small amount of smoke could be seen in the area. Read more ...