Jefferson County will invest around $7 million into the sheriff’s office’s new Wildland Fire Management Program after being approved by both county commissioners and Jeffco residents.

The county’s board of commissioners officially approved the budget item Tuesday morning, taking $6,880,379 from the general fund for the sheriff’s office’s new program set to help mitigate and battle wildfires in the region.

The commissioners unanimously approved the budget request months after Jeffco citizens approved of Ballot Measure 1A in November, allowing the county to retain revenue collected to help fund public safety, transportation and infrastructure needs.

Part of these needs includes wildfire response, according to a press release from the county.

“The goal is to keep our community safe, especially as our county faces 98% higher wildfire risk than other counties in the United States,” Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper said before the vote Tuesday.

Jefferson County also ranks as the second-highest at-risk county for wildfire danger in the state, according to the county’s website. Teller County ranks highest. 

The program is aimed at approaching wildfires with both prevention and response tactics, bringing in 37 new staff positions. It also includes wildfire outreach, a homeowner assessment and certification program, micro-grants for defensible space and home hardening, increased county capacity for fire protection district support and increased fire management resources.

Some of these resources would include crew vehicles, chainsaws and a new fire engine. The Type 6 fire engine, designed to combat off-road fires, was already purchased by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office following the passing of Ballot Measure 1A.

“We would have folks in place to be able to support our fire protection districts and the departments with nationally recognized wildland fire qualifications,” Brian Keating, the fire management officer for the sheriff’s office, said of the new staff during a presentation to the commissioners Tuesday.

Keating pointed toward the Quarry fire west of Ken Caryl in Deer Creek Canyon last year as an example.

The fire burned through 579 acres between July 1 and Aug. 7. 

“Right now we’re extremely limited. We’ve only got one qualified incident commander,” he said. “Building out this program would allow us to have more capacity and be able to respond to multiple incidents.”

He added that Jeffco relied on outside resources to help with the Quarry fire, including state and federal help, but Jeffco is in no place to reciprocate with the amount of resources they currently have.

“Building this program, we could not only benefit from our neighbors as we did last year, but we could support them,” he said.  

Multiple local fire chiefs spoke in favor of the program Tuesday. Kurt Rogers, chief of the Conifer Fire Department, said: “We’re very encouraged to see Jefferson County building a program that will help the entire Front Range.” 

“This initiative represents a significant step forward in our mission to better serve and protect Jefferson County,” Jefferson County Sheriff Reggie Marinelli said in the release. “Wildfire risk is extremely high in our county, and this program will allow us to be more proactive and better equipped to respond to fire-related emergencies.”