The members of the Emergency Incident Support Team volunteer their time to ensure all first responders and community members in need during prolonged situations receive food, hydration, and a safe haven.
Law enforcement, emergency medical services, fire and rescue. They all tie together and this picture says it all. Wherever you go, EIS will be there supporting El Paso County.
We need more volunteers! In the above photos, a tender offloads water into portable tanks. Relay or attack engines draft water directly to firefighters.
We kept 45 firefighters going strong with snacks and hydration as they battled an extensive structure fire today in chilly conditions for hours. Hanover Fire was primary with mutual aid from Security, Fountain, Stratmoor Hills, and Ellicott Fire.
Today we served lunch burritos for 80 wildland firefighters from Colorado Springs Fire, the El Paso County Wildland Crew, Fort Carson Fire, Donald Wescott Fire, Tri-Lakes Monument Fire, and the Cheyenne Mountain State Park Rangers. Despite 35MPH winds, crews contained the fire to 27.5 acres, all but 1 on park property.
Today we served around 35 emergency responders from Tri-County, Ellicott, Edison, Hanover, Big Sandy, Calhan, Cimmaron Hills, and Fountain fire departments. These incidents can be long and exhausting. EIS brought water, coffee, sports drinks, prepackaged snacks, beef jerky, and Skittles of course.
Thank you Village Inn for supplying fresh coffee. We initially served from our supply of prepackaged burritos. Shout out to El Bronco Ranch Market in Calhan, CO for making fresh, hearty burritos as the incident went on longer. Any kind of hot food to keep our responders going helps.
The three vehicles on the right are “tenders” which supply water in areas without hydrants. The square red object left-center is a portable tank, typically holding around 4000 gallons. The engine on the left drafts from the tank and can either serve firefighters directly or relay water to an attack engine. It takes a great deal of planning and training to establish a professional water supply operation such as this one. It is an honor to serve those that make this look easy.