{"id":134852,"date":"2026-06-26T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rico-dolores-volunteer-fire-departments-struggle-with-recruitment-amid-oncoming-fire-season\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T02:15:20","slug":"rico-dolores-volunteer-fire-departments-struggle-with-recruitment-amid-oncoming-fire-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rico-dolores-volunteer-fire-departments-struggle-with-recruitment-amid-oncoming-fire-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Rico, Dolores volunteer fire departments struggle with recruitment amid oncoming fire season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"With
With limited volunteers, the Rico Fire Protection District gets support from departments in the Montezuma, Dolores and San Miguel counties. Recruitment, firefighters say, is difficult for volunteer departments across the nation. (Journal file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

With 17 red flag warnings issued for Montezuma County this June, residents are on high alert for fires. Local volunteer fire departments are, too \u2013 or, at least, as much as they can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a little low on membership. I\u2019m not really getting any new recruits,\u201d Rico Fire Chief Todd Jones said. \u201cWe might have two or three show up during the day. Sometimes we may get more, but yeah, sometimes we struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

His department is composed of about 15 volunteers with a core group of nine. In his 44 years heading Rico Fire Protection District, recruitment has been a consistent issue, but it is particularly worrisome now considering the hot, dry and windy summer creating perfect wildland fire conditions in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we start getting fires and have to be on fires, we\u2019re going to struggle to have to take care of everything else at the same time,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

He said the department mainly responds to car wrecks and search and rescue efforts which can be taxing on the department.<\/p>\n

Jones would consider the department fully staff if it reached 24 volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cRico being where it\u2019s at, I just don\u2019t have much to draw from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite being short staffed, there hasn\u2019t been a single unanswered call. If needed, Rico\u2019s team is supported by other departments in Montezuma, San Miguel and Dolores counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make every call,\u201d Jones said. \u201cSometimes we\u2019re lacking. We have to have help here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick Spencer, Cortez Fire Protection District assistant fire chief, estimated his fire department, which has a full-paid staff, responded to between six and 10 mutual aid calls last year from departments in the county as well as in Rico and Dove Creek.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a give-and-take countywide. Everybody helps everybody. \u2029We will go help any department that needs help and likewise the volunteering agencies will come help us if we need help also,\u201d Spencer said.<\/p>\n

With more people taking jobs outside of the communities they live in, he said, the limited availability of volunteers is a nationwide problem.<\/p>\n

\u201c20 years ago, the people that volunteered for fire departments, they lived in the community, they worked in the community and they also volunteered for the community,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s going away because more and more people are having to go to work outside of the community that they live in and volunteer for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day time availability is a main struggle for volunteer fire departments, including Rico\u2019s, which is staffed with only two or three people during typical working hours. Cortez is staffed with anywhere between five and eight firefighters depending on the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look at those conditions, and if it warrants we will upstaff two additional people to come in and staff a brush truck, and they\u2019re there strictly to respond to brush fires,\u201d Spencer said.<\/p>\n

For Jones, even the trucks are an issue, as one made in the 1990s recently broke down. It happened to be his wildland fire truck.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a very, very important truck, so I\u2019ve got to figure that one out as soon as we can,\u201d he said. \u201cWe use that one for brush fires quite often.\u201d<\/p>\n

He applied for grants to replace the truck, but it could still be a year before he gets one. Right now, Jones said, his priorities are personnel and upgraded equipment.<\/p>\n

Dolores Fire Protection District is struggling with personnel too, hosting an open house J<\/a>une 27 in the hopes of boosting recruitment.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 wife, Kim, is the Dolores fire chief and works most days with little support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s volunteer, so not many people want to spend the time these days to do something they\u2019re not gonna get paid for,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd this is all over the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancos, Dove Creek and Pleasant View are just some of the other small communities in Southwest Colorado supported by volunteers.<\/p>\n

In terms of why someone should spend their time volunteering, Jones recounted a successful rescue the department executed last year as an example.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a kid almost die on us last year, up in the woods, took us about five hours to get him out, and he survived,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m hearing that he\u2019s getting better all the time. Learning to walk and all kinds of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s both a necessary and noble cause, according to the firefighting couple.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen bad things happen to people and you can make it better and you feel good about it \u2013 I mean, that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a month defined by red flag warnings, some agencies are looking for recruits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,44,350,28,29,497,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-134852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-dolores","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-rico","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134852"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136259,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134852\/revisions\/136259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134852"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=134852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}