Great operational members. Work hard and are mission focused. Many at the line level are the ones holding the organization and crews together.
Administration however only cares about the money side and there is little focus on the morale of the members. As administrators they are focused on money and image more than individuals, and less on how operations functions. Morale is not high, as other things have been made priority over mission readiness. From the chiefs level, there is an abundance of no accountability most of the time, and bouts of micromanagement the rest.
All but one of the chiefs have forgotten where they came from and who and why we serve. They serve for themselves and manage others with an iron fist.
The chain of command is on paper robust, but if you are buddies with any chiefs, and know how to go around it, at any position you may be able to communicate directly with the chiefs to accelerate what benefits you as the individual, and have it aggressively protected and defended by them, no matter the ethical, moral or legal complications.
CRFR has a robust wildland program as well that gets a lot of attention, often drawing away from operations, that the taxpayers have paid into. They can actively recruit, train and deploy them successfully, but operations is running ragged with short staffing, overtime and a hemorrhage of people who see this place going down.
Wildland division is the baby of CRFR and highly supported. The operations division however is not the priority of administration. Station 43 was closed years ago as it was decided that it was too expensive to continue operating. When the mill levy passed years ago however, it was campaigned that the increase in taxes would be to hire more firefighters and open the station back up. It was not uptrend back up for operations, but now serves as a wildland station, not supporting the south half of Rifle s designed and promised.
The management of CRFR is extremely detached from the line staff, and only communicate amongst themselves for what best for the members and community. This detachment produces no leadership and incestuous ideas that only confuse membership because the ideas do not practically work. There is little to no accountability from management when things go right or wrong and many questionable decisions have been downplayed or swept under the rugs.
Working for CRFR has its rewarding moments, especially when serving the community alongside some of the most dedicated and skilled firefighters in the county. The crews in the field truly make the job worthwhile. However, there’s a growing sense among many of us on the operations side that leadership is increasingly disconnected from the realities we face daily.
It often feels like we’re just numbers on a roster rather than valued professionals putting in hard, dangerous work. Decisions sometimes seem more focused on optics and administration than on supporting the boots on the ground. Morale could be a lot better if there were more effort from the top to truly listen, support, and advocate for the well-being of the line. We’ve lost most more people in the last 6 years than we’ve hired, including the entirety of our volunteer and part time programs which used to be 30 strong. We have cancerous people who act like they know it all and act like we’re the FDNY. 2/4 of our chiefs seem to get it. The operations chief doesn’t seem to support anything we do and doesn’t allow battalions to have more OT than backfill. The wildland division started from scratch in 2016 and is the most successful division in the department, 20 strong with a suppression module. Our chiefs are more concerned with making a profit off 911 and IFT/Flight crew transfers than the well being and ability to respond to 911 calls. Our rigs are aging and our mechanics CANNOT keep up. We barely hired a second this year and we have a fleet of 40 vehicles. The Ops and Fire Chief sweep mental health under the rug and act like everything is great but refuse to acknowledge the morale survey from the past few years. We have a physical ability test that was made up and “legally” verified that members HATE with a passion because it isn’t realistic and people are in fear of their jobs if they fail. Members have no clue where the department is going in the next 5 years. all the chiefs got brand new trucks but we can’t keep an ambulance running. The chief came out with an 8-page manifesto after having conversations with willing line staff and turned out complaints back on us. All the battalion chiefs rotated shifts which didn’t not solve the bad egg problem. We are banking on light duty members coming back to the line to increase staffing. Our fire chief has a disconnect from the district, citizens, and employees. We feel like we’re just a number.
There’s pride in wearing the uniform—but many are hoping for leadership that shows the same level of pride in us.
Oh and if you’re buddies with the chief, you can get away with anything regardless of morals and legalities
It has become increasingly evident that our department’s priorities are misaligned with both the needs of our personnel and the community we serve. A non-verified and frequently altered “physical ability test” continues to be used as a primary metric for determining firefighter fitness. This test, which lacks third-party validation or consistent standards, was created by an individual who simultaneously owns a private health and wellness company—one that now contracts with the department to conduct medical assessments including audio, visual, bloodwork, and cardiopulmonary testing.
What raises serious concern is that these services are already available to all personnel for free through our insurance providers locally, yet the department chooses to divert public funds to a private entity directly connected to an employee. This is not only a potential conflict of interest—it undermines trust, transparency, and the responsible stewardship of department resources.
Moreover, the current implementation of these tests disrupts operations significantly. Crews are rotated while on duty to attend testing sessions at fixed times, pulling ALS providers out of service and leaving critical areas of the district—including some of the busiest zones—unprotected or understaffed. The result is a compromised standard of care and slower emergency response, with 3/4 of the district’s resources often pulled to one end for logistical convenience rather than operational necessity.
Equally troubling is the disregard for personnel privacy. Having a co-worker handle protected health information (PHI) raises ethical and legal concerns, particularly in the absence of clear, documented privacy safeguards. Employees should not be placed in a position where their personal medical data is accessible to peers or potentially shared with administration outside of appropriate medical channels.
The department’s leadership appears more focused on cutting costs and reducing overtime than on establishing a sustainable staffing model or planning for the future. The result is chronic understaffing – This is a dangerous precedent and a disservice to the community. We have retirements coming up and the Fire Chief seems to have no concern over losing members. Some feel a lack of interest in employee morale, especially when it comes to chief staff brushing things off and ignoring our complaints. Chief staff has chosen to write-off any future lateral hirings because theyve deemed our recent one a failure, not examining the WHY and HOW it failed…
Without strategic planning, transparent leadership, and a genuine investment in personnel and public safety, the department risks further personnel loss and eroding public trust. As the saying goes: Failing to plan is planning to fail. It is time for leadership to prioritize the mission we signed up for—protecting lives and property—over private interests and shortsighted cost-saving measures. It’s going to take a LODD or dropping a critical call for us get more staffing…or suddenly “find funding”…
The line level crews and members are what make this department stay above water and serve the community to the best of their abilities. Every line member keeps pushing and adapting and running themselves ragged for the greater good of the community in which they serve despite being what can fell like handcuffed.
The leadership above the battalion chief is questionable as to what their goal and mission is short of just reading the mission statement posted. Rather than following it. There is no transparency or relay of information from the top down to line level. Many feel there is no common goal or vision to be working or building to instead it’s just do what your told. The accountability is lacking, and disheartening for what is given to are community. Kore often than not crews are shuffled around and taken out of district for extracurricular activity ranging from yearly standard testing that’s created undue stress and confusion to its professionalism and liability as well as legal, to covering none essential task delegated down. Many members are encouraged to take on extra task during there shift time which takes away there response to the communities.
The moral of the department is in the gutter and it seams to not matter as long as the board is told everything is great. The culture is bad with members feeling like they’re just another employee job number and not valued or listened to when ideas are brought up to better the department and its services. Members feeling they are not listened to rather than just tolerated. Money is spent what many feel wastefully and extra outside companies that provide subpar benefits. It feels almost impossible to get something’s fixed weather it be with comms equipment to just getting simple monitors or station equipment replaced or updated.
The line level workers are the back bone of this department and keep pushing and providing exceptional service even being tied down and pushed under water.
Rating Breakdown
1.2/5
1.8/5
3/5
1.8/5
5 Reviews on “Colorado River Fire Rescue”
Great operational members. Work hard and are mission focused. Many at the line level are the ones holding the organization and crews together.
Administration however only cares about the money side and there is little focus on the morale of the members. As administrators they are focused on money and image more than individuals, and less on how operations functions. Morale is not high, as other things have been made priority over mission readiness. From the chiefs level, there is an abundance of no accountability most of the time, and bouts of micromanagement the rest.
All but one of the chiefs have forgotten where they came from and who and why we serve. They serve for themselves and manage others with an iron fist.
The chain of command is on paper robust, but if you are buddies with any chiefs, and know how to go around it, at any position you may be able to communicate directly with the chiefs to accelerate what benefits you as the individual, and have it aggressively protected and defended by them, no matter the ethical, moral or legal complications.
CRFR has a robust wildland program as well that gets a lot of attention, often drawing away from operations, that the taxpayers have paid into. They can actively recruit, train and deploy them successfully, but operations is running ragged with short staffing, overtime and a hemorrhage of people who see this place going down.
Wildland division is the baby of CRFR and highly supported. The operations division however is not the priority of administration. Station 43 was closed years ago as it was decided that it was too expensive to continue operating. When the mill levy passed years ago however, it was campaigned that the increase in taxes would be to hire more firefighters and open the station back up. It was not uptrend back up for operations, but now serves as a wildland station, not supporting the south half of Rifle s designed and promised.
The management of CRFR is extremely detached from the line staff, and only communicate amongst themselves for what best for the members and community. This detachment produces no leadership and incestuous ideas that only confuse membership because the ideas do not practically work. There is little to no accountability from management when things go right or wrong and many questionable decisions have been downplayed or swept under the rugs.
Working for CRFR has its rewarding moments, especially when serving the community alongside some of the most dedicated and skilled firefighters in the county. The crews in the field truly make the job worthwhile. However, there’s a growing sense among many of us on the operations side that leadership is increasingly disconnected from the realities we face daily.
It often feels like we’re just numbers on a roster rather than valued professionals putting in hard, dangerous work. Decisions sometimes seem more focused on optics and administration than on supporting the boots on the ground. Morale could be a lot better if there were more effort from the top to truly listen, support, and advocate for the well-being of the line. We’ve lost most more people in the last 6 years than we’ve hired, including the entirety of our volunteer and part time programs which used to be 30 strong. We have cancerous people who act like they know it all and act like we’re the FDNY. 2/4 of our chiefs seem to get it. The operations chief doesn’t seem to support anything we do and doesn’t allow battalions to have more OT than backfill. The wildland division started from scratch in 2016 and is the most successful division in the department, 20 strong with a suppression module. Our chiefs are more concerned with making a profit off 911 and IFT/Flight crew transfers than the well being and ability to respond to 911 calls. Our rigs are aging and our mechanics CANNOT keep up. We barely hired a second this year and we have a fleet of 40 vehicles. The Ops and Fire Chief sweep mental health under the rug and act like everything is great but refuse to acknowledge the morale survey from the past few years. We have a physical ability test that was made up and “legally” verified that members HATE with a passion because it isn’t realistic and people are in fear of their jobs if they fail. Members have no clue where the department is going in the next 5 years. all the chiefs got brand new trucks but we can’t keep an ambulance running. The chief came out with an 8-page manifesto after having conversations with willing line staff and turned out complaints back on us. All the battalion chiefs rotated shifts which didn’t not solve the bad egg problem. We are banking on light duty members coming back to the line to increase staffing. Our fire chief has a disconnect from the district, citizens, and employees. We feel like we’re just a number.
There’s pride in wearing the uniform—but many are hoping for leadership that shows the same level of pride in us.
Oh and if you’re buddies with the chief, you can get away with anything regardless of morals and legalities
It has become increasingly evident that our department’s priorities are misaligned with both the needs of our personnel and the community we serve. A non-verified and frequently altered “physical ability test” continues to be used as a primary metric for determining firefighter fitness. This test, which lacks third-party validation or consistent standards, was created by an individual who simultaneously owns a private health and wellness company—one that now contracts with the department to conduct medical assessments including audio, visual, bloodwork, and cardiopulmonary testing.
What raises serious concern is that these services are already available to all personnel for free through our insurance providers locally, yet the department chooses to divert public funds to a private entity directly connected to an employee. This is not only a potential conflict of interest—it undermines trust, transparency, and the responsible stewardship of department resources.
Moreover, the current implementation of these tests disrupts operations significantly. Crews are rotated while on duty to attend testing sessions at fixed times, pulling ALS providers out of service and leaving critical areas of the district—including some of the busiest zones—unprotected or understaffed. The result is a compromised standard of care and slower emergency response, with 3/4 of the district’s resources often pulled to one end for logistical convenience rather than operational necessity.
Equally troubling is the disregard for personnel privacy. Having a co-worker handle protected health information (PHI) raises ethical and legal concerns, particularly in the absence of clear, documented privacy safeguards. Employees should not be placed in a position where their personal medical data is accessible to peers or potentially shared with administration outside of appropriate medical channels.
The department’s leadership appears more focused on cutting costs and reducing overtime than on establishing a sustainable staffing model or planning for the future. The result is chronic understaffing – This is a dangerous precedent and a disservice to the community. We have retirements coming up and the Fire Chief seems to have no concern over losing members. Some feel a lack of interest in employee morale, especially when it comes to chief staff brushing things off and ignoring our complaints. Chief staff has chosen to write-off any future lateral hirings because theyve deemed our recent one a failure, not examining the WHY and HOW it failed…
Without strategic planning, transparent leadership, and a genuine investment in personnel and public safety, the department risks further personnel loss and eroding public trust. As the saying goes: Failing to plan is planning to fail. It is time for leadership to prioritize the mission we signed up for—protecting lives and property—over private interests and shortsighted cost-saving measures. It’s going to take a LODD or dropping a critical call for us get more staffing…or suddenly “find funding”…
The line level crews and members are what make this department stay above water and serve the community to the best of their abilities. Every line member keeps pushing and adapting and running themselves ragged for the greater good of the community in which they serve despite being what can fell like handcuffed.
The leadership above the battalion chief is questionable as to what their goal and mission is short of just reading the mission statement posted. Rather than following it. There is no transparency or relay of information from the top down to line level. Many feel there is no common goal or vision to be working or building to instead it’s just do what your told. The accountability is lacking, and disheartening for what is given to are community. Kore often than not crews are shuffled around and taken out of district for extracurricular activity ranging from yearly standard testing that’s created undue stress and confusion to its professionalism and liability as well as legal, to covering none essential task delegated down. Many members are encouraged to take on extra task during there shift time which takes away there response to the communities.
The moral of the department is in the gutter and it seams to not matter as long as the board is told everything is great. The culture is bad with members feeling like they’re just another employee job number and not valued or listened to when ideas are brought up to better the department and its services. Members feeling they are not listened to rather than just tolerated. Money is spent what many feel wastefully and extra outside companies that provide subpar benefits. It feels almost impossible to get something’s fixed weather it be with comms equipment to just getting simple monitors or station equipment replaced or updated.
The line level workers are the back bone of this department and keep pushing and providing exceptional service even being tied down and pushed under water.