Barbara Lawlor, Gilpin County.

Timberline Fire Protection District firefighters have become a family, and like a family they can be found hanging out in the kitchen of their home, planning their day and rehashing recent events.

Last Saturday, a group of officers gathered round the meeting table at station #7 on Hwy. 46 and talked about how they got to where they were, and who they were before they discovered the Timberline family.

They are a varied bunch of characters, quite a few of whom are self-described old farts, with whitening beards and creaking bones and muscles that can still carry a 40-pound backpack and walk four miles in 15 minutes.

They can haul hundreds of pounds of belching water hose and climb up steep cliffs while carrying a litter with a 200-pound person in it.

They can fix anything that breaks, can clean the toilets at the stations and can gently hand a stuffed puppy to a frightened child after a car accident.

These firefighters have not always been firefighters, they have come from many walks of life, many careers, and have settled into the one that satisfies their soul. Getting rich was not their goal.

John Carder is a long-time TFPD firefighter, a volunteer until last October, when he was hired to fill Aaron Skeen’s place after he became a full-time firefighter with the Black Hawk Fire Department.

Originally from New Mexico, Carder came to Colorado, to Magnolia Road in 1985, to attend CU where he met his wife Susan. He majored in Mathematics and didn’t have a plan, so he attended Berkeley’s grad school. He also developed a knack for trading gold. His mother had delved into the gold business and did research on how to make money. John looked over her shoulder, saved his money. At that time, he says, it was hard not to make money. He also learned he didn’t want to teach math.

So, he went into software, specializing in charts. He bought a house on Magnolia road in 1985 and he and Susan raised Rottweillers. In 2000, she was diagnosed with cancer. In November of 2000, she died at their home.

“The people who came to help me that were my neighbors, were High Country Fire Department volunteers, Bob Eppinger, Kristine Bulich and Debbie Ching showed up for the 911 call. Dispatch told me what to do, the CPR.”

Susan passed away, and later, after five months of grieving, John remembered what the firefighters had done for him and signed up with HC. He passed the rookie class with Dawn Dennison, Vivian Long and Tom Plant. John became a full-fledged volunteer in 2002.

“I had seen the volunteer sign often but back then I was spending time with my wife and didn’t see the opportunity the department offered. I went through ‘boot camp,’ which now is a formal training program, and was able to go out on calls. The first day on the job I went to a call of an eight-year-old boy with a laceration. They didn’t tell me the child had gone over the edge of Rollins Pass on an ATV. It was up to me. They lowered me down on a rope because I was wearing hiking boots and because I agreed to do it. I repelled down and was the brake going up. This job is filled with surprises and I love that. No getting bored when you are a firefighter.”

John has been on all the major fires in the last decade, also some heart-warming incidents. He remembers responding to a call of a women trapped in a car in the South Beaver Creek. When he got there, she passed her three-year-old son to him. “The boy was eating a waffle and grinning as if he had just had the most fun ride in his life.”

John works four 10-hour shifts a week. He says most calls are fairly routine, but every tenth call he will help someone in need and feel like he’s accomplished something. “Maybe I can’t fix something, but I can help get someone through the pain, help them deal with loss.”

Caleb Kroft, the Director of Recruiting and Retention has been a volunteer for the past eight years and was hired last December. He is funded by a full time four-year grant. “There were a lot of candidates for the job,” says Caleb. “I have a love for the district and many years as a volunteer advocate.”

Caleb’s job is to make sure the volunteers receive what they need to accomplish their goals. There are more than 50 volunteers on the roster who want to help the community and use their various talents.

“I worked in the technology industry before I was hired here full-time. My engineer job ended when this one started. This is a dream job. I am a third-generation firefighter. Finding recruits is not a tough sell. We work in 170 square miles of beautiful country and we offer training, support and opportunity.”

There are currently 22 applicants in the recruitment cycle. Of that 22, 13 were offered positions and accepted.

Two firefighters now actually live at station 5, next to Taggarts, where there are seven rooms and a kitchen. The volunteers put in 50 hours a week, including sleep. These shift people are usually not from within the district and sign up for 24 hour shifts on weekends.

The Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control also has two firefighters, Robert Kriegbaum and Scott Brooks, as well as a new engine at the station. The station houses the firefighters and the engine, with the firefighters staying there for 40 hours a week.

Robert says the state pays their salary and is paying for another fire fighter who is in training. John Carder is the third person on the state engine. The men moved into the job on December 1, 2017. The wildland engines and personnel have been placed in a number of strategic locations in the state.

Caleb says there are a lot of young people who want to become firefighters. It looks good on a resume. In fact, the district has more applicants than there are jobs, but there are also a generation of firefighters who are retiring, opening up the slots.

TFPD has gone through a lot of changes in last three years since Glenn Levy came in and began reorganizing the district. After he left, he was replaced by Paul Ondr who has continued the progress.

Caleb says, “You do this because you love it. If you have the bug, you have the bug.”

Belonging to a fire department demands a high commitment of time, but it is the highest level at which people can serve.

The orientation academy for the hiring cycle begins on March 2. This is an intense program of life-saving skills.

Assistant Chief Chip Smith has been involved with music most of his adult life. He is from McCook, Nebraska and graduated from Fort Morgan High school. He was large then and he is large now, so he was mostly focused on athletics. He played football for the University of Nebraska, a pretty intense football school. He always wanted to make a career playing football, earning millions of dollars and retiring.

His dream was waylaid by a friend who talked him into joining the Men’s Glee Club and earning an easy A.

“I found I enjoyed singing and decided to take voice lessons because it was another easy A. I had to perform in a department recital and I sang “Across the Western Ocean.” It was sort of a novelty, seeing a jock in the music world. When I finished the song, the place went quiet. It was one of those moments. It was the first time I created something from me; it was an epiphany that changed the course of my life.”

Chip joined the university choir and performed the king in the “The King and I,” when he was a freshman, against all advice.

Since then he had performed over 180 roles all over the US and the world. He sang in Carnegie Hall, Mendelssohn’s Opus 42. Although he had wanted to teach at public schools and earned an education degree, he discovered he was not talented enough. “It was too hard. It takes a special kind of person.”

Chip went on to get a master’s degree and a doctorate in vocal performance and learned how to conduct, direct and perform. He then met his wife

Donna who is a voice instructor at the University of Nebraska. In 1993 they bought a cabin on South Beaver Creek and became summer residents. In his third summer in Colorado, Chip decided he needed another meaningful activity, a social outlet and a way to meet plumbers and electricians who had tools. He knew firefighters could fix anything. He also knew there was nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.

Over the years, he has worked his way up the ranks, becoming certified to wear a black hat and become assistant chief. “Which means I’m older in the department and I don’t usually yell at anybody. I am also president of the board, which is a different hat.”

Chip says the district has made unbelievable progress in moving forward in the past three years with five paid personnel, including two residents.

“People are engaged and excited about the station in no man’s land and looking forward to the challenges of the next few years. We are not a simple rural fire district. We are very complex. There is a real joy in being a member of this organization.”