Living in the high country requires preparations for the threat of wildfires. Summit Fire & EMS maintains a robust program to assist property owners, residents and visitors prepare for wildfire.

All Summit Fire & EMS firefighters are qualified for fighting wildfires, and our firefighters routinely deploy to wildfires nationwide to help others and hone their skills, ensuring readiness in case Summit County is threatened by fire. Additionally, SFE has a dedicated four-person Wildland Division, which is available for wildfire-mitigation consultations and presentations with the public in addition to duties such as ensuring that our crews are equipped and trained to respond to wildfires and offering experienced fire-management support on first response.

Recent wildfires -- including the 2021 Ptarmigan Fire, the  2018 Buffalo Mountain Fire and the Peak 2 Fire and the Tenderfoot Fire of 2017 -- as well as from other major wildfires across the region have given us many lessons that we should heed about creating "defensible space" around homes and developed areas, about being ready to evacuate on a moment's notice and about combatting fires.

On this and subsequent pages in the wildfire section of our website, we hope to give you the tools you need to live with this constant existential threat.