New Emergency Services facility opens
Emergency responders, firefighters, law enforcement, and other officials from Northern Colorado packed the expansive, newly constructed Larimer County Emergency Services Building for its official opening and ribbon-cutting on Friday.
“This building is really about being ready, prepared and protecting people. It’s about supporting our first responders. I know how important it is --- especially having first responders in my family --- to have the resources to be prepared to step forward for our community when they need help,” said Larimer County Commissioner Jody Shadduck-McNally.
U.S. House Representative Joe Neguse joined the Board of Larimer County Commissioners and Larimer County Sheriff John Feyen for a short ceremony and ribbon-cutting at the new facility.
“In crisis after crisis, the first responders of Larimer County have always shown up with immense speed, bravery, and expertise. I was proud to secure $850,000 in federal funding to build the Larimer County Sheriff's Office's new Emergency Services Building, which will now serve as a home base for these first responders — from wildland firefighters, paramedics, rescue professionals, and the countless others our communities depend on,” said Congressman Joe Neguse.
The new, 40,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility, located about 4 miles northwest of Fort Collins at 2250 W. County Rd. 56, replaces an older, inefficient, outdated facility that could no longer serve the community's needs. The older building didn’t have enough room for emergency personnel or equipment storage with the growth of our population, and Larimer County Emergency Services has also grown over the years to protect our increased population. The new building has training rooms, locker rooms, offices, a dormitory, and a large garage for storage of emergency equipment and vehicles.
“The garage bays where the emergency vehicles are stored are kept warm in the winter by radiant heat so they’re ready to go,” said Larimer County Commissioner Kristin Stephens. “Even the landscaping around this facility is designed as a real-world example of fire defensible spaces that community members can use as ideas around their own homes. But despite all the new technology in this facility, the most impressive thing about this new facility is the work that will be done inside these walls.”
The new facility will serve as a central hub for wildland fire, search and rescue, water rescue, and hazardous materials incidents. With our environment and the future in mind, it will also be geothermally heated and cooled. Over the next 25 years, it is estimated that the new facility will prevent over 900 tons of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, as well as save taxpayers money on energy costs.
“This new facility is better set up to allow our volunteers and personnel to train, plan, and coordinate with each other. It also allows us to host an incident command post at this building, something we couldn’t do at our old facility,” said Larimer County Sheriff John Feyen. Feyen continued, “This new facility has the capacity and resources to also serve as a heli base and a fire camp for crews during disasters. This building is built on the foundation of those who came before us. We could have not done this without the funding from the citizens of Larimer County, our federal and state partners at The Department of Local Affairs to help weave this tapestry of funding that allows us to be here in this new facility, as well as Congressman Neguse.”
More about Larimer County Emergency Services and Fire Rescue can be found here: https://www.larimer.gov/emergency-services
