When a new training facility opens in the next few years, the academy at Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District is expected to attract first responders from 20 agencies around the region.
“We’re in the process now of working with a fundraising group to build a three-story training tower here,” said Dean O’Nale, who was recently named Deputy Chief of operations and training at NETCO. “The tower will serve as a training center for area law enforcement, firefighters and emergency services agencies.”
The tower, an estimated $600,000 project, is an expansion of the training that NETCO firefighters have been doing for the past five years. “The new academy is a cooperative effort with the Chiefs Association that includes police, fire and EMS,” O’Nale said. “We’re optimistic that we can make this a dream come true.”
In addition to its broad scope of the training, the academy offers convenience. “The importance right now is that we are required to have facility training where we have to drive to Fort Carson in Colorado Springs,” O’Nale said. “If we can do that here, it will be awesome.”
O’Nale joined the department after serving the past two years as chief of the Cripple Creek Fire Department. In a firefighting career that began 40 years ago as a teenage volunteer in Arkansas, O’Nale serves under Chief Tyler Lambert in his newly-created position.
“Operations is everything from the front door to the back door, making sure the crews have everything they need to do their jobs,” O’Nale said. “It’s an organizational thing.”
O’Nale’s job description includes training wildland crews and EMS staff. “Anything related to training, I’ll be responsible for,” he said.
As a firefighter/paramedic, O’Nale joins the team when an emergency call comes in. “That’s the fun stuff,” he said.
Hired on during the coronavirus pandemic, O’Nale and his crews are prepared for the worst — and have been all along. “Pandemic response for us is like hazardous materials response,” he said. “Go slow, have the right equipment, understand the situation and adapt to it.”
On a recent day at the station, the on-duty staff offered glimpses into a career that ranges from fighting fires to intervening in medical emergencies — that is, before they had to run off to rescue a cat caught in a tree.
Sean Baker
One of 10 part-time firefighters for NETCO, Baker works full-time for the Denver Fire Department. He has traveled back and forth for the past 10 years.
“All of our part-timers work full-time elsewhere,” Lambert said.
Baker thrives on the diversity. “It’s an amazing program here; that’s why I’ve stayed as long as I have,” Baker said. “This is a small department but, I can tell you, I would take anybody here and plug them in to Denver. They are just as capable. We do so much more here with so much less.”
Baker works five shifts a month for NETCO. “I just get plugged in to where I can be the most helpful,” he said. “I absolutely love it.”
Derek Kilik
Promoted to captain, firefighter/EMT Kilik started out as a volunteer in 1998, was hired on full-time in 2000 and earned the title of engineer in 2008. “The reason I do this is that I like to help people but I also like to problem-solve,” he said. “We come across a bunch of different things and things need to happen very quickly.”
With his promotion, Kilik is in charge of orchestrating the speed factors, which involves more than just racing to a fire scene. “It’s a new and exciting challenge,” he said. “I’ve been doing some of it as a relief officer, but I’m ready for the challenge.”
Eddie DiMarco
Starting as a volunteer in 2008, DiMarco worked up from part-timer to full-time as a firefighter/EMT with a promotion last month to engineer.
“I drive the truck and am responsible for pumping water,” he said. “I’m also the relief officer.”
Due to the pandemic, the crews respond to calls wearing face masks and other personal protective equipment. The calls vary. “Today we had a medical call where a lady fell and broke her wrist,” DiMarco told The Courier last week.
Don Baysinger
Baysinger started his career as a volunteer for eight years with Mountain Communities Fire Department and has been a firefighter/EMT with NETCO for a year.
“If I went for a career in firefighting, this was always my dream, being at my hometown station in Woodland Park,” he said. “It’s been a huge learning experience and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”
The crews work 48 hours straight, then get 96 hours off. “At least two of those days I’m out fishing,” Baysinger said. “I do a lot of fly fishing and hiking.”
Because of the inherent danger of firefighting, the career is obviously not for everybody.
“A lot of people who are in public safety, police, fire and EMS, are the helpers,” O’Nale said. “We just want to help. As we get into our careers we look at different ways to do that.”
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