—February 28, 2018,
Colorado Emergency Management Association (CEMA) Conference
The Eastern portion of Custer County, in Colorado’s South Region is home to the small communities of Wetmore and Greenwood. The Wetmore Volunteer Fire Department serves this portion of Custer County, lying outside the Wet Mountain Fire Protection District. Since 2005, the area has been affected by five wildfires, most recently the 18,403 acre Junkins fire in October of 2016.
An active member of the Wetmore Fire Department, Ruth Roper is the only female firefighter in the small department, but her efforts haven’t stopped there. She recently joined Custer County Search and Rescue, where she has participated in hoist technician training with the Colorado Air National Guard at HAATs and has participated in a number of trainings and SAR field responses in the Wet Mountains and Sangre de Cristo Wilderness area. Ruth is also an active member at the Wetmore Community Center, volunteering with recent renovations to the facility as well as other activities at the community center.
Ruth’s commitment to her community became even more evident, when she began to organize many of the recovery efforts following the Junkins fire. Not only was she a first responder during the weeks-long fire, she assisted in organizing community meetings relating to the potential post-wildfire flash flooding, participated in U.S. Army Corps of Engineering sand bag training, worked on pre-disaster mitigation efforts along Hardscrabble Creek and became the face of preparedness in her community, educating the public and insisting that they take the threat of post-wildfire flash flooding seriously and prepare their properties accordingly. She then worked to bring Team Rubicon to the community to assist with debris removal and sandbagging efforts after the July 29th flash flooding along Hardscrabble Creek.