FLORISSANT, CO — In a Facebook Post on Tuesday, a letter from Chief Erik Holt informed the Florissant community that the fire protection district had lost its insurance coverage, which was thereafter followed up by another post resolving the issue later in the evening.
The Florissant Fire Protection District said Tuesday evening they would no longer be responding to emergencies until further notice.
The letter specifically stated, "As of June 6, 2023, at 1630 hrs until further notification Florrisant Fire Rescue will be unable to respond to emergency incidents..."
The letter went on to say that the 4 Mile Fire Protection District and Divide Fire Protection District will provide emergency coverage until the matter of insurance coverage was resolved.
We wanted to learn more about how this happened so we reached out to the fire protection district for comment, here is what officials had to say about the matter.
According to Chief Erik Holt, the new board of the fire protection district took over two weeks ago and allegedly froze the district's bank accounts resulting in insurance bills being returned even though the bills were paid. Holt told us there was currently no coverage on vehicles and for volunteer firefighters.
We reached out to the new recently elected Board President Paul del Toro to learn more about the frozen accounts.
During the transition of the board, the new board decided to freeze the district's checking account because they didn't have the authority to sign off on checks at that moment, and they didn't have access to the checking account at the time.
While the board was waiting for the new signatories to be added to the bank account, the board did have the power to approve transactions verbally with the bank.
According to Allen Schultz, Florissant Fire Protection District Board Secretary, the district's bank would call the board to approve or deny any transactions made.
Schultz went on to tell us that the check sent by the bank to the insurance company did not clear, for reasons unknown, prompting the district's insurance agent to tell del Toro that the district's insurance expired immediately.
This prompted del Toro to call an emergency board meeting, informing members of the fire department, the Florissant community, and dispatch of the loss of insurance.
Board President del Toro would go on to wire funds personally to the insurance company to maintain coverage. It was at this point the insurance company informed del Toro that while it was communicated that their plan had lapsed, it would actually expire on Wednesday morning at midnight.
Shortly after our conversations with Chief Erik Holt, Board President Paul del Toro, and Board Secretary Allen Schultz a Facebook post from Chief Holt, stated that the insurance company had received the wire transfer and that the Florissant Fire Protection District will continue to resume emergency responses.
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