By Veronica Acosta | Denver7
LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A new statewide assessment found two-thirds of Colorado fire departments can’t fund their full operations, and nearly 80% can’t afford the equipment and staffing they say they need — a gap agencies like West Metro Fire Rescue say is now pushing them toward asking voters for more money.
Colorado’s fire departments are being asked to do more than ever, and a new state report shows most of them don’t have the money to keep up.
The 2026 Colorado Fire Service Needs Assessment, released this month by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC), surveyed 122 of the state’s roughly 340 fire departments and found that two in three — 66.4% — say their current funding isn’t enough to run all of their department’s operations. Nearly 79% say they can’t afford the equipment, training and staffing they’ve identified as needed just to keep pace with today’s calls.
“The needs are real, they are broadly distributed, and they cannot be addressed through local resources alone,” the report states, calling the funding gap “the most important single finding of this assessment.”
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