PUEBLO — Pueblo firefighters are responding to calls faster, but the plan is to speed it up even more with three new fire stations under construction. The Pueblo Fire Department's goal is to get firefighters to people's doors quickly while keeping them safe.
“Drive time is drive time and you don’t want to cut corners on that, you want to drive safely,” said Barbara Huber, Fire Chief for the Pueblo Fire Department. “You can know your routes better, traffic can impact that. But for the most part, it's going to be pretty consistent as far as how long it takes to get to certain areas of town from where your station is."
Huber said speeding up response times comes from making turn out time faster.
“Turn out times are the only thing we can control from how long it takes from the time we get notified of a call to the time the truck starts moving to get to a call. That is about the only time we can control, and we did improve on that, so, I was really happy about that,” said Chief Huber.
Turn out times are how fast firefighters leave the station after a call comes in. When the alarm sounds, the goal is to have firefighters dressed and out the door in 90 seconds or less.
“We generally time each other to get our bunkers on within 60 seconds or less. So with the time to walk to the truck, put your bunkers on, you should be able to make that time. And it's just a goal we strive for, especially as a department, it's a national standard, and we just want to strive to meet that standard,” said Chief Huber.
In 2024, the Pueblo Fire Department had an estimate of 26,049 calls for service. That's a 4.36% increase over last year. Turnout times went down by six seconds to the average of two minutes and 14 seconds, which is down 4.29%.
Chief Huber made a presentation to Pueblo City Council during a work session on Tuesday night, outlining the department's ‘Strategic Plan For 2025-2030.’ The plan includes updates on the three new fire stations currently being built, and how the Pueblo Fire Department wants to improve firefighter safety and turn out times.
One way they plan to improve firefighter safety is through their three new fire station buildings currently under construction. These include a new Station 8 and Station 6, as well as the additional Station 11 they are adding on.
Station 8 is moving locations and will be located on the northeast side of Pueblo along Jerry Murphy Road.
Josephine Magoon lives right down the road from where the new Station 8 will be. She knows first hand just how life changing firefighter response times can be.
“Because every second counts when they're saving a life. Every second counts,” said Magoon.
The home where Magoon was raising her family burned down in 2021.
“The fire that we had... we... lost our son. So, it is 10 times more important that we're able to get help when we need help,” said Magoon.
After the fire, Magoon and her family moved, but when she heard a fire station would be built down the street, she decided to re-build the home and move back in.
“I think it's amazing that we're gonna be able to have first responders that are there and ready to help,” said Magoon. “Like, if something were to happen, we could just go down the street and get help, if you know the response time would be like, maybe less than a minute or two."
Data from the Pueblo Fire Department shows last year's response times went down by 18 seconds. On average, responding to a call took nine minutes and 18 seconds.
Magoon said the night of the house fire, firefighters acted fast and responded within five minutes. Once the new Station8 is built, first responders will be just seconds away.
“We're actually able to sleep a lot better at night knowing that we'll be able to have help whenever... and it is nice to know that they're probably gonna be some of the same people that helped us before,” said Magoon.
According to Chief Huber’s presentation, construction for Station 11 is expected to be completed in June 2025, Station 8 in July 2025 and Station 6 in December 2025.
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One person dead following shooting in King Soopers parking lot Monday afternoon
One person is dead following a shooting in the parking lot of the King Soopers on Stetson Hills Boulevard, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.
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