Site for Aerial Firefighting Center Selected

Rifle will be the home of the Center for Excellence in Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting, a much sought-after state research center expected to revolutionize firefighting in Colorado, Gov. John Hickenlooper announced Wednesday.

The decision to put the center on the Western Slope came as a blow to El Paso County officials and business advocates, who last month pitched Colorado Springs as the ideal spot for the wildfire research hub.

Rifle, with its wildfire-prone landscape, free airspace and “small town affordability” was chosen over five other communities vying for the center.

“We were fortunate to have a number of outstanding candidates to consider for the Center for Excellence and it was a difficult decision with both urban and rural applicants, but Rifle and Garfield County stood out as the best choice,” said Hickenlooper in a release issued by the state Division of Fire Prevention and Control.

The decision was a disappointment for El Paso County leaders, including Mayor Steve Bach and County Commissioner Sallie Clark who, along with the Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance, had gathered support from around the region for a Colorado Springs- based center. The business alliance released a statement Wednesday praising the county’s group effort to put together an application, which offered the area’s military presence, its wildfire history and airport as prime reasons to award the center to Colorado Springs.

“I know that we put a good application together,” Clark said Wednesday. “It’s not like we didn’t do our best.”

The center was created as part of a package of modernized firefighting efforts, among them the Colorado Firefighting Air Corps fleet that legislators approved during the 2014 session. The center will become the technological home for fire prevention systems and software used to detect fires. The state’s Division of Fire Prevention and Control hopes to open the center by August.

Experts predict that the center will be an economic boon to the host town – over the years, it could mean hundreds of new jobs for the community. The potential economic benefits were listed as one of the main reasons the state awarded Rifle the center. Since the beginning of the year, Hickenlooper has been touting his ambitions to push economic development and high-tech jobs into Colorado’s more rural areas.

Rifle was one of six communities – most of them on the Front Range – that offered office space, airports and local expertise for the center. The pitches were non-binding suggestions submitted to the state in early February. Rifle’s application had support from 21 public and private entities. Also vying for the center were Fort Collins, Jefferson County, Centennial, Clear Creek County and Colorado Springs.

Rifle is home to an Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire Management Facility, which houses Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC) resources. The Garfield County airport serves as a base for air tankers, smokejumpers and other air attack resources for fighting wildfires.

“The Rifle/Garfield County location offers the DFPC the ability to pair its currently existing resources with the Center of Excellence staff,” said Paul Cooke, the state’s fire director for the division. “The location could easily become the Western Slope hub for DFPC programs.”

Colorado Springs’ application, submitted by the Regional Business Alliance, also offered regional support for the center. Fremont, Elbert, Teller and Pueblo counties sent letters of support to the state, and Rep. Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs, penned a letter supporting a decision to put the center in Colorado Springs.

While the center will undoubtedly offer an economic boost to Rifle, Clark pointed out that a couple of rural southern Colorado counties could have used the benefit of a center. In 2013, the Royal Gorge fire exploded in Fremont County, and in 2012 more than 20 small arson fires ignited in Teller County. Teller also was heavily impacted by the 2002 Hayman fire, which at more than 138,000 acres remains the largest wildfire in recent Colorado history. The county still sees the impacts of flooding from the burn scar more than a decade later.

“Certainly, wildfires have affected our more rural areas,” she said. “If you look at the impact on Teller County and Fremont County, frankly those are rural counties that would have been able to benefit from having (the center) in Colorado Springs.”

Despite the disappointment from those involved with the Colorado Springs application, the business alliance was gracious in its news release.

“On behalf of the Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance and all of those who supported the Colorado Springs effort to become the host community, we are certainly disappointed but wholeheartedly support Rifle and the Colorado Department of Public Safety’s Division of Fire Prevention and Control as they work to establish what we are sure will become a national resource,” the release said.