FORNEY MUSEUM - 2023

Photos: Vinny Del Giudice
In 2023, Denver's Forney Museum of Transportation hosted the "Fire Trucks to the Rescue!" exhibit. Two of the rigs displayed - old Engine 6 of the Denver Fire Department and old City Engine 4 of the Fort Morgan Fire Department - are owned by Kevin Sweeney, retired chief of operations at North Metro Fire Rescue.

DIESEL DALMATIAN

Photo: Adams County Fire Rescue
Dalmatians, it is said, have natural affinity to horses. In days of old, the breed would help protect fire horses. This contemporary pooch, it seems, has an affinity for diesels.

HOOF VS HEAD - 1904

Image: Pueblo Fire Museum
Firehouse death of Pueblo firefighter Andrew Baker, 42, of No. 1 steamer, as reported by the Pueblo Chieftain newspaper on June 16, 1904. Baker was cleaning a horse stall when an equine named Jim, who had a habit of biting, kicked him. Moments earlier, when Baker entered the stall, Jim snapped at him - and Baker tapped Jim with a broom.

DOG'S BEST FRIEND

Photo: West Metro Fire
West Metro firefighter clutching canine evacuee on the fireground. West Metro serves the Denver suburbs of Lakewood and Wheat Ridge and the old Barcroft fire district.

RUNS & WORKERS

The fire department in Pueblo, Colorado, acquired an auto with money "saved in the purchase of horse feed," according to The Pueblo Sun of Nov. 23, 1909.

 

On Feb. 6, 2022, firefighters rescued a person from a house fire in the 3500-block of 35th Avenue in Greeley, Colorado. "Ladder 5 crew arrived on scene to find a working fire and immediately initiated an interior search of the structure," the fire department said on Facebook. B-Shift was on duty that evening.

Blaze at Greeley's old Tolman store at 8th Avenue and 7th Street in October 1956.

On Dec. 26, 1968, fire struck the old Sterling Theater at 926 9th Ave. in Greeley. The theater was undergoing demolition and much of the floor had been removed.

Item appearing in Feb. 7, 1903, edition of Colorado Daily Chieftain of Pueblo.

Greeley firefighters rescued two people from a fire in a two-story house in the 800-block of 4th Street on Aug. 22, 2021.

On the scene and tending to a troubled auto in the early 1960s.

Photos: Greeley Fire Department On Jan. 6, 1970, fire swept the construction site of the library at Colorado State College - today the University of Northern Colorado - in Greeley. Firefighters endured bitter cold.

AURORA - 2022

Photos: Aurora Fire Department
Aurora, Colorado, firefighters on the scene of a fatal apartment fire on Jan. 24, 2022

PARADISE BOMBED - 1932

On April 12, 1932, a bomb exploded at the Paradise Cleaning and Dyeing plant in Denver after the firm declined to join a "protective association," the United Press reported. 

Joseph Bitman, part-owner, told police he received threats, the UP said.

The bomb detonated at the rear of the business at 1753 South Broadway, where gasoline was stored, shortly after midnight and the blast was heard across South Denver, the Rocky Mountain News reported.

Jerome Weissman, 1070 Columbine Street, the purported organizer of the protective association, was questioned by Denver police Sergeant William J. Armstrong and released, the News said.

The threats were by mail, the News said.

Firefighting was directed District Chief Clarence Hawkins, the News said.

BUSES TORCHED - 1970

On Feb. 5, 1970, explosives destroyed or damaged 42 school buses in a Denver parking lot as the city moved to racially integrate its public schools. Acting Fire Chief Dan Cronin said the explosives were placed under the fuel tanks. Workers were able to move some of the buses during the fire, news reports said.

OLD LOWRY

Photos: Fire Trucks At War, Lowry Foundation
Building 357 was home to fire department headquarters at now-shuttered Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. Today, a theater group occupies the old firehouse.

IT'S STILL A JOB RISK

On April 10, 1907, while chopping a hole in a roof with an ax, a fireman named Bosman accidentally amputated the hand of a fireman named Deutsch at the servants' quarters of the Grand Hotel in Durango, Colorado, according to the Telluride Daily Journal in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.

11 DEAD IN ENGLEWOOD - 1928

Denver Fire Chief John Healy directs search for victims

On April 20, 1928, 11 workers died in a fire at the Alexander Aircraft Company in the Denver suburb of Englewood and many others were injured.

Employee Richard Trenari, 21, said: "It was a terrible inferno."

The fire was preceded by explosions in or near the paint shop, according to an Associated Press story in Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal of Dubuque.

Barred windows trapped workers in the building where silver nitrate was applied to aircraft wings, and the floors were soaked in combustibles, according to Wikipedia.

Five corporate directors were charged with voluntary manslaughter though that was reduced to safety violations and they were fined $1,000 and handed suspended jail sentences.

By operating in Englewood, the company was able to skirt Denver's building codes.

WYOMING NIGHT WATCH

Engine 2401 of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management High Plains District shines with the night sky in Wyoming.

WYOMING LODD

WYOMING

• Ted Drake, Wyoming State Forestry, May 17, 2014
• Adam Longo, Natrona County Fire Protection District, April 18, 2012
• Jacob Cook - Evanston Volunteer Fire Department - April 18, 2005
• Robert Henderson - Evanston Volunteer Fire Department - April 18, 2005
• Anndee Huber - Newcastle Fire Department - May 22, 2003
• Roger "Bo" Rathbun - Crook County Firefighters - November 8, 2000 
• James Burnett - Oklahoma Forestry Services - August 11, 2000 
• Bruce Honstain - Powell F.D. - September 10, 1996
• Wilbert Hansen - Laramie Co. #6 - Nov. 11, 1993
• James E. Dame - Natrona Co. Firefighters - March 7, 1991
• Alan L. Mickelson - Gillette F.D. - January 31, 1989
• Edward L. Hutton - BLM - October 11, 1988
• Donald Kuykendall - U.S. Forest Service - Sept. 11, 1988
• Merrin Rodgers - BLM - August 19, 1988
• Darrell D. Staley - Evanston F.D. - July 4, 1988
• Steven L. Huitt - F.E. Warren AFB - April 21, 1988
• Douglas Cuzzort - Bighorn Airways - September 3, 1983
• Gene Ahrendt - September 3, 1983
• Cecil Lynch - Jackson Fire Department - August 8, 1980
• Kenneth D. Double - F.E. Warren AFB - July 21, 1976
• Robert C. Moore - Cody F.D. - May 20, 1974
• James R. Elgin - August 18, 1970 
• John E. Bastian - August 18, 1970 
• David L. Stoudt - Avery Aviation - September 3, 1969
• Wayne A. Garkie - September 3, 1969
• Galen M. Northrop - BLM - August 14, 1969
• Ike Roberts - Rock Springs F.D. - September 15, 1962
• Floyd L. Travis - Campbell Co. Fire Dept. - July 24, 1960
• Elsie Christensen - Weston Co. Fire - October 23, 1952
• Michael T. Sullivan - Cheyenne F.D. - March 13, 1952
• Edward Archer - U.S. Forest Service - September 7, 1950
• C.K. Coltrane - Casper Fire Department - January 16, 1949 
• Alfred G. Clayton - U.S. Forest Service - August 21, 1937
• Rex A. Hale - U.S. Forest Service - August 21, 1937
• Billy Lea - Bureau of Public Roads - August 21, 1937
• Paul E. Tyrrell - U.S. Forest Service - August 21, 1937
• James Saba - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• Clyde Allen - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• Roy Bevens - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• George  Rodgers - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• Mack T. Mayabb - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• Ambrocio Garza - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• Earnest Seelke - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• John B. Gerdes - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• Rubin D. Sherry - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• Will C. Griffith - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• William Whitlock - Civilian Cons. Corps - August 21, 1937
• Henry Larsen - Rawlins F.D. - February 23, 1930
• Fred W. Tossie - Sheridan F.D. - January 22, 1929
• John S. Federhen - Cheyenne F.D. - September 10, 1920

RUB-A-DUB - 1962

"We did our job and got the hell out of there." That's how Denver Assistant Fire Chief John DeJong, described the Dec. 13, 1962 rescue of Linda Jane Hinchman, a student at Colorado Womens College. Hinchman, 17, of Glenwood, Indiana, wedged her toe in a bathtub faucet. Firemen sawed the faucet and freed her toe with petroleum jelly. She kept the faucet, according to a UPI story in the News-Press of St. Joseph, Missouri.

SOUTH METRO

Photo: South Metro Fire Rescue

Colorado's South Metro Fire Rescue is major force in the Denver area.

It traces its roots to the Castlewood Fire Protection District, which consolidated with the Castle Pines Fire Department and North Douglas County Fire Protection District in 1986 and the Cherry Hills Fire Protection District in 1989, according to Wikipedia.

The name South Metro name was adopted in the late 1990s.

Its territory expanded through further consolidation and includes Bow Mar, Castle Pines, Centennial, Cherry Hills Village, Columbine Valley, Foxfield, Greenwood Village, Littleton, Lone Tree, Parker, Castle Pines Village, Highlands Ranch, Louviers, Centennial Airport, the Denver Tech Center, Inverness, Meridian Office Park and unincorporated sections of Arapahoe and Douglas counties. 

Today, South Metro Fire Rescue operates 30 fire stations, protecting 300 square miles of Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson counties, according to its website.

FEDERAL HEIGHTS - 1976

On Jan. 7, 1976, Guyon Zimmerman, 60, a volunteer firefighter with Colorado's Federal Heights Fire Department, suffered a fatal heart attack at a trailer park fire, according to the next day's Rocky Mountain News.

Zimmerman was airlifted to St. Anthony's Hospital from the Countryside Village Mobile Home Park at 9850 North Federal Boulevard, the newspaper reported.

The fire heavily damaged the trailer home of Dale Roush.

Zimmerman, who resided at 2000 West 92nd Ave., was survived by his wife Nellie B. Zimmerman, mayor pro-tem of Federal Heights, and two adult daughters.

The Rocky Mountain News made no mention of other injuries, the suspected cause of the fire, mutual aid, etc.