by Fred Hernandez

Young blood flows through the Wet Mountain Fire District as the new fire chief takes command of his organization. After a year as assistant to the outgoing fire department boss, Jeremiah Coleman, from a well known family in the valley, took over as Fire Chief with the departure of the former officer. Jeremiah had been serving in the Board of Directors of the fire department since 2018 and that experience plus the eleven years he has been serving as a firefighter volunteer gives him the necessary credentials to effectively manage and lead the Custer County firefighting team.
Born in May of 1989 the Chief is a youthful thirty four year old ready to take over a department with a total complement of about thirty full time and part time workers, three cadets, eighteen vehicles and an annual budget of about $ 2 Million. A graduate of the local school, there was a time he never thought that he would someday be the top man in the Custer County fire department. He loved his job, however, and is happy to have done what he did to get to this leadership post. He credits the former fire chief for having left him a well run operation and thanked him for all the good training he received during his year of apprenticeship.
Jeremiah now wants to push forward in a proactive way and continue the upward trajectory for the fire district. What he would like to see off hand in the foreseeable future is the possibility of having at least four full time, salaried professional firefighters who can be scheduled and based at the station and ready at any time for quick response during any emergency. These four will be assigned two each in two vehicles always prepared to be rapidly deployed as the need arises. At the moment Jeremiah is about to promote two of his fire fighting staff to the position of Battalion Chiefs which is the equivalent of being the number two person to the Fire Chief.
In addition to the current complement of volunteers the new Fire Chief welcomes anyone who would like to volunteer at the fire department. Come in anytime and meet the Chief. Cadets are also welcome. These are young men ages 16 and up who would like to start training early for a possible career. Not only is firefighting a most important need for any community, it could be a rewarding endeavor for those who are physically fit and inclined to this type of work. While in the past this was almost exclusively a volunteer job, today some of the positions pay reasonably well. The Chief is a full-time employee as is the main mechanic who sees to all the maintenance and repairs of the almost two dozen vehicles. Aside from benefits including a company vehicle, the Chief receives an annual income of sixty thousand dollars. In the future, the Chief would like to see more dedicated professionals paid a regular monthly stipend with retirement benefits to ensure a strong and reliable work force for a growing community of Custer County.
At the moment the department receives between three hundred to three hundred ten calls a year. These include all calls from traffic accidents to natural emergency conditions. These could grow depending on situations which are impossible to forecast. Going into the fire season the Chief warns everyone to take care of their properties and perform the necessary preparations to make sure the home and other assets are safe. For more information or to send the new Chief a congratulatory and welcome message please call
(719) 783-9245 or you may want to visit the website at https://wetmountainfire.com/