Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.  Once a year the Nederland Fire Protection District firefighters, their families, the board of directors and a bunch of future firefighters gather to recap the year and enjoy each other’s company, dinner and well-deserved awards. They get to laugh, remember the good outcomes, share the grief of the bad outcomes and congratulate each other on the saves, whether of property or of lives.

The dinner was held at the Kathmandu Restaurant, where the firefighters were treated to a special buffet which opened up with a slideshow of photos taken at calls throughout the year. The show was narrated by Chief Rick Dirr, punctuated with his witty comments and insights into the action.

Dirr thanked all of the spouses of firefighters and presented each one with a gift certificate.

The past year, 2015, fortunately, had no major wildland or structure fires. The most serious accident was a fatality car crash in Boulder Canyon, during which many of Ned’s firefighters were called to extricate three people trapped in the vehicle. One of the passengers was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene.

The vehicle was on its side and mangled so horribly that the doors and the roof had to be taken off before the patients could be removed and transported by a flight for life.

A person and a dog stranded on a tree trunk in the middle of Middle Boulder Creek in Hessie were safely rescued, a leak that was at first thought to be toxic but proved to be benign, from the Swathmore Mine, was stopped, a car was destroyed by flames in Boulder canyon, firefighters searched for a missing child, who was found, on Ridge Road, and multiple abandoned campfires were extinguished.

Length of Service Awards were presented to Rick Dirr, for 25 years of service, Kate Dirr for 20 years, Beth Davis for 15 years, and Iain Irwin-Powell for five years.

Compared to 412 calls last year, 2015 had 379. Volunteer Incident Response Awards were presented to Top Gun Iain Irwin-Powell for 197 responses, Eric Abramson for 129 and David Femmer for 119. Training hour certificates went to Iain Irwin -Powell for 25, Alex Olivas for 22 and David Femmer for 22. Irwin-Powell hit 1,000 calls.

The Best Standby Responder was Coghill Newell, and Honorable Mention was Eric Abramson, for holding down the fort at the National Night Out, and representing the fire department when the other firefighters were on the canyon accident call.

Life saving awards were given to teams of firefighters, including Charlie Schmidtmann, Rick Dirr, Iain Irwin-Powell and Ken Kehoe for treating and reviving a heroin overdose; Onthank and Mike Smith for treating a respiratory arrest; Mike Smith and Kate Dirr for saving a person pinned between a car and a snowplow with the car smoking; teamwork-unit commendation for extrication at the canyon fatality accident, Ryan Roberts, Rick Dirr, Rob Savoye, Irwin-Powell, Femmer, Kehoe, Gabbey and Richardson.

Customer Service Award went to Charlie Schmidtmann, Alex Olivas and Mike Smith for boarding up a section of the Carousel’s windows when a truck broke through it. Charlie Schmidtmann for assisting a horse trailer that was broken down, and Schmidtmann also won the Extraordinary Effort Award.

It was also a time for promotions: Iain Irwin-Powell was promoted to lieutenant; David Femmer was promoted to lieutenant and Kirsten Reynolds received her official firefighter number.