South Metro Fire Rescue (SMFR) is a fire protection district which provides

fire protection Fire protection is the study and practice of mitigating the unwanted effects of potentially Conflagration, destructive fires. It involves the study of the behaviour, Compartmentalization (fire protection), compartmentalisation, suppression and inve ...

and

emergency medical services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services, pre-hospital care or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to d ...

for the municipalities of Bow Mar, Castle Pines,

Centennial A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

, Cherry Hills Village, Columbine Valley, Foxfield,

Greenwood Village The City of Greenwood Village is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 15,691 at the 2020 United States census. Greenwood Village is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO ...

, Littleton, Lone Tree,

Parker Parker may refer to: People * Parker (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Parker (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname Arts and entertainment * ''Parke ...

, portions of

Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

and unincorporated portions of

Arapahoe The Arapaho ( ; , ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho bands formed two ...

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking * Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...

, and Jefferson counties in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. The area South Metro serves is in size with a population of more than 540,000. South Metro Fire Rescue is an internationally accredited agency with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) and holds an

Insurance Services Office Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO), a subsidiary of Verisk Analytics, is a provider of statistical, actuarial, underwriting, and claims information and analytics; compliance and fraud identification tools; policy language; information abou ...

(ISO) Public Protection Classification Class 1 rating. The district operates teams specializing in

aircraft rescue and firefighting Aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) is a type of firefighting that involves the emergency response, mitigation, evacuation, and rescue of passengers and crew of aircraft involved in aviation accidents and incidents. Airports with schedul ...

, bike medics, dive rescue,

hazardous materials Dangerous goods are substances that are a risk to health, safety, property or the Natural environment, environment during transport. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials (syll ...

, incident management team, SWAT medic,

technical rescue Technical rescue is the use of specialised tools and skills for rescue, including but not limited to confined space rescue, rope rescue, trench rescue, structural collapse rescue, ice rescue, swift water rescue, underwater rescue, and cave rescue. ...

urban search and rescue Urban search and rescue (abbreviated as USAR or US&R) is a type of technical rescue operation that involves the location, extrication, and initial medical stabilization of victims trapped in an urban area, namely structural collapse due to natu ...

, and

wildland firefighting Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts depend on many factors such as the available fuel, the local atmospheric conditions, the features of the terrain, and the size of the wildfir ...

. The district is a product of decades of consolidation between area fire departments since the 1980s including Castle Pines Fire Department, Castlewood Fire Protection District, Cherry Hills Fire Protection District, Cunningham Fire Protection District, Littleton Fire Rescue, Louviers Fire Protection District, North Douglas County Fire Protection District, and Parker Fire Protection District.

History

The origins of the South Metro Fire Rescue name comes from Castlewood Fire Protection District which had petitioned to change its name to South Metro Fire Rescue on December 31, 1998. Prior to South Metro Fire Rescue, Castlewood Fire Protection District began the trend of consolidating with neighboring departments with Castle Pines Fire Department and North Douglas County Fire Protection District in 1986, and Cherry Hills Fire Protection District in 1989. In 1999, Robert Rinne assumed the fire chief position, and Louviers Fire Protection District agreed to merge with South Metro Fire Rescue effective January 1, 2000. On January 19, 2006, South Metro Fire Rescue established the Metropolitan Area Communications Center (MetCom) to provide dispatching service for the district. In March 2006, the district achieved international accreditation from the CFAI, a distinction held by only three other agencies in the state at the time. In April 2007, a report was provided to the district by Emergency Services Consulting Inc. noting a consistent lack of trust between personnel and the fire chief's office and suggested a change in leadership. An example cited by the report included questioning financial decisions made in purchasing four firetrucks whereas the apparatus committee suggested only purchasing one. By June, four members of South Metro Fire Rescue's leadership, including Chief Robert Rinne, had stepped down and Fire Marshall Mike Dell'Orfano assumed the position of acting chief. In October 2007, Parker Fire Protection District Chief Dan Qualman assumed the role of interim chief of South Metro Fire Rescue as a study began on consolidating operations with Parker Fire Protection District. The study was completed in March 2008 and found that a consolidation of departments would result in tax savings and better services. The two districts voted to consolidate on April 24, 2008 and began working together on May 1, 2008 as a single authority governed by the two boards of directors, the largest merger between two entities in Colorado at the time. On January 5, 2016, Parker Fire Protection District and South Metro Fire Rescue merged into a single district. In January 2015, Chief Dan Qualman retired and Bob Baker assumed the position of fire chief for the district. In November 2017, South Metro Fire Rescue and Cunningham Fire Protection District agreed to form a new joint fire authority to join the two districts together effective January 1, 2018. On January 1, 2019, South Metro's authority was expanded to include areas of the Highlands Ranch Metropolitan District, Littleton Fire Protection District, and City of Littleton that were previously covered by Littleton Fire Rescue, a department with history that dates back to 1890. As a result of the expansion, South Metro became the second largest fire district in

. The authority was dissolved in May 2020 after

redistricting Redistricting in the United States is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries. For the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures, redistricting occurs after each ten-year census. The U.S. Constitution in Art ...

of the board of directors and subsequent election allowed for voter representation from the newly added areas. On January 1, 2018, South Metro received an ISO Class 1 rating after previously holding a Class 3 rating, and is notable for being the first agency in the United States to achieve a Class 1 rating in areas without a

fire hydrant A fire hydrant, fireplug, firecock (archaic), hydrant riser or Johnny Pump is a connection point by which firefighters can tap into a water supply. It is a component of active fire protection. Underground fire hydrants have been used in Europe a ...

that would require water tenders to respond.

Stations and apparatus

Notable incidents

* On May 7, 2019, the 2019 STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting occurred which resulted in one death and eight injuries. The initial response by South Metro Fire Rescue was upgraded to a

mass casualty incident A mass casualty incident (often shortened to MCI) describes an incident in which emergency medical services resources, such as personnel and equipment, are overwhelmed by the number and severity of Casualty (person), casualties. For example, an ...

(MCI) based on information received and included

mutual aid Mutual aid is an organizational model where voluntary, collaborative exchanges of resources and services for common benefit take place amongst community members to overcome social, economic, and political barriers to meeting common needs. This ...

from neighboring agencies and departments with three medical helicopters attending. The agency notes that over 150 support personnel, ambulances, and fire apparatus responded to the incident.

References

External links

Official website

IAFF website
{{Authority control Fire departments in Colorado