Fire - Civic Plaza
Past History
In November 1897, residents meet in the Milner Building to take steps toward the formation of a hook and ladder company. Until then there were no means of firefighting. At the time the town had three merchandise stores, a jewelry store, harness store, bakery, tin store, gun shop, millinery and two hotels. At the turn of the century, the Steamboat Springs Volunteer Fire Department was formed in February 1904 with Chief Bradford and 31 volunteers on board.
Throughout the 1920s, the department purchased a complete chemical engine and associated chemicals and firefighting equipment, followed by a Model T carrying hoses and ladders and then fixed an old sled to do the same during the winter. In 1963, a 500-gallon tank and front-end mounted pump with a 400 gallon per minute capacity.
In the early 1970s, the fire department became part of the county and city tax funded departments. Prior to that, fire trucks were paid for with donations and fundraisers. Five years later, the volunteer crew found itself in a new $180,000 public safety building on Yampa Street.
Major Fires
The city has not been immune to its share of fires with one of the first seeing the Whipple’s Stage Barn go up in flames in 1909. The Steamboat Pilot office, one of the oldest buildings at the time, also caught fire, resulting in 24 years of files being lost.
In 1910, the Steamboat School, built in 1889, burned but many of the library books were saved. The Dunfield & Marsh department store lost $25,000 when it burned to the ground. 1915, 1916 and 1917 all saw major fires with the Mutual Theater and several surrounding buildings destroyed, the 23-room Onyx Hotel water boiler exploded and the Sentinel building with include the newspaper office on Lincoln.
Just before Christmas in 1927, the Pupke building was a complete lost. It housed the Hix Grocery and Market, Walt Webber’s Radio Shop, Fred Maurer’s jewelry store, the Maytag shop and Dr. Morey & Morey office.
Early in 1939, the 100-room, four-story, all-wood Cabin Hotel, said to be the finest in all of Colorado, burned down in an hour with two fatalities. Due to the deep snows, firefighters were prevented from attacking the fire.
The 1940s, 50s & 60s experienced three significant fires. The Mock Economy Store burn down due to fire hoses freezing twice due to -25-degree temperatures. The Valley M&E Co. building, a town landmark, was destroyed resulting in an estimated $50,000 in damages. The historic two-story County Annex building at 6th and Lincoln was totally destroyed after crews battled the blaze for more than 12 hours.
Most recently, the Good News Building and the entire block were engulfed due to a gas explosion and the Steamboat Smokehouse was destroyed and adjourning structures suffered significant damage due to a structure fire.
Present History
Entering the 21st century, SSFR serves the city and the surrounding community, approximately 385 square miles, by reducing human suffering and property loss, protecting the environment, and promoting life safety through incident response, public education, and fire prevention. Personnel are trained as firefighters and emergency medical technicians with several attaining paramedic certification.
A modern downtown fire station sprang to life near the new City Hall. Station 1 is an 18,000+-sq-ft, two-level station featuring drive through access from three bays providing flexibility of apparatus placement and response capabilities. A mezzanine training and storage area, along with a hose dry tower connects to the apparatus bay.
While efforts remain focused on protecting properties and lives, many of the larger conversations have shifted to the proliferation of wildfires and ensuring the community is actively mitigating these chances.