Clear Creek Fire Authority (CCFA) is a consolidated fire protection and emergency service agency serving the municipalities of Empire, Georgetown, Idaho Springs and Silver Plume and the unincorporated lands of Clear Creek County, Colorado previously represented by the Clear Creek Emergency Services District (ESD).
CCFA’s 60 volunteers and six full time firefighters operate eight fire stations and on average responds to more than 1,200 emergencies throughout 365 square miles of Clear Creek County each year. Several years ago, the CCFA successfully implemented a hybrid volunteer/stipend program. The Authority’s extensive territory includes I-70 (Colorado’s primary east-west transportation corridor), Clear Creek (a world class rafting river) and its tributaries, four 14,000-foot peaks, two ski areas, several hundred abandoned mines, residential and business districts that date to the 1860s, 7,000 residents, hundreds of thousands of visitors, and part of the state’s infamous wild land-urban interface.
CCFA was organized in January 4, 1999, when the municipal fire departments in Empire, Georgetown, Idaho Springs, Silver Plume and the ESD fire departments of Dumont, St. Mary’s and York Gulch consolidated their resources and missions under a single intergovernmental agreement. This contract outlines the governance, funding and operation of the Authority. An eight-member Board of Directors governs the CCFA and each director is appointed by a municipality or the ESD.
Our volunteers receive on-the-job training in addition to weekly courses and drills to prepare them for the variety of emergencies that occur each year. Firefighters are encouraged to attend courses offered outside CCFA. Most firefighters have medical training as EMT-paramedics, EMT-basics and first responders. Other specialized training enables CCFA firefighters to respond safely and professionally to structure and wild land fires, extrications, hazardous materials incidents, backcountry rescues, swift water rescues, ice rescues and investigations.