Front Range first responders get creative to reach emergencies in snowstorms
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (KDVR) — As Colorado communities continue digging out from Thursday’s storm, the snow totals are putting a strain on some first responders.
Police, firefighters and paramedics don’t get snow days even in the most extreme weather.
Snow totals from Colorado’s biggest storm since 2021
“It’s just normal life and so people are experiencing medical emergencies. Their fire alarms are going off. Car accidents are happening, and of course, weather can be a factor in some of those and our firefighters and paramedics still have to get to those calls,” said Eric Hurst, South Metro Fire Rescue’s public information officer.
City and state plows focus on clearing main roads first. Neighborhood streets are often left for last.
“A lot of times it’s easy for them to get out of the fire stations to take the main thoroughfares because that’s where the snow plows have been doing all their hard work and then when our responders get to neighborhood streets, that’s where they can run into problems,” Hurst said.
South Metro found a do-it-yourself solution by equipping five of their department vehicles with snow plows when they knew a significant storm was in the forecast.
“They can carve a path right up to the front of the house, wherever the emergency is occurring and then the real hard work begins and that’s maybe shoveling snow from the front door to the back of the ambulance,” Hurst said.
Thursday, the plows worked nearly every call in Highlands Ranch, where residential areas were buried in more than a foot of snow. High school students on a snow day volunteered to shovel through coordination with Arapahoe Rescue Patrol.
The emergency plow had to be deployed in Highlands Ranch again Friday morning too.
Watch: Aurora fire crews rescue ambulance that got stuck in inches of snow
“They just got back from an incident earlier this morning so the side streets are still kind of an issue for us accessing emergencies and then making sure that we can get the ambulances out to get patients to the hospital,” Hurst said.
Aurora saw issues with ambulances getting stuck in the snow too.
“We had several ambulances get stuck around 2 a.m.,” Aurora Fire Rescue firefighter Brad Danek said.
The department reassigned one of its fire trucks as a tow truck to help.
“This engine is normally used for wildland fires. However, last night because it’s a 4-wheel-drive, we were pulling ambulances out in the snowstorm,” Danek said.
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