Northeast Colorado firefighters plan against next incident 

FLEMING – Firefighters and area farmers and ranchers met Wednesday to learn how to make fire responses more efficient. 

The meeting addressed communication, available resources public and private, and liability. Fleming Fire Chief Levi Lowe was one of the speakers at the event. 

“Tonight’s focus was to work with the local farmers and other departments to set up a system that we can call on to know where water resources, farmers with plows and tractors are set up at,” Lowe said Wednesday after the meeting. 

Chief Lowe said Fleming had meetings previously. This one was partly motivated by recent events. 

“So, we, in the past, had a night like this. We set it up, we talked and got a start on a program but recent events in Nebraska and in Colorado we thought it was good to revisit this and update our system,” he said. 

The meeting opened with Rick Jackson discussing liability when a farmer/rancher offers his resources to help fight a fire. Jackson said it is important to have private equipment “commandeered” before entering a fire. If a farmer or rancher enters a fire without authority by the incident commander or acting chief, they take the risk of being responsible for any damage or loss that occurs. 

“Over the years, we’ve had guys that used their tractors and discs, and they smoked up their tractor, they burnt the paint, and we’ve ... because they were commandeered, we paid to deodorize the tractor and repaint the tractor. That’s the best-case scenario. Worst case scenario is someone doesn’t go home,” Jackson said. 

He stressed residents need to follow procedure for their safety and liability. He said everyone needs to understand privately-owned equipment needs to be commandeered to be covered by insurance. 

Logan County Sheriff Brett Powell discussed communication options to keep farmers in contact with firefighters. Discussion included keeping programmed radios in tractors, texting farmers and ranchers known to be in a specific area or software that will communicate directly with authorities.  

He stressed that a farmer/rancher needs to check in before assisting with a fire. 

“Mr. Jackson said ‘please let us know when you get there, so we can send you somewhere.’ If we don’t know you’re there and you get burned up, your insurance is probably not going to cover you because we didn’t know you were there,” Powell said.  

He also said knowing water sources can be critical in a fire. 

“If you have a well, that’s another thing that we were working on. Just make sure you let these guys know, so that can be plotted on the map,” he said.