Larimer County sheriff’s emergency services outlines expanded crews, new restrictions and tech partnerships

Larimer County commissioners on May 28 heard a progress report from the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office on wildfire preparedness, an expanded emergency medical unit for austere rescues, and new mitigation staffing and technology aimed at speeding detection and response.

The update matters because county leaders said demand for emergency services — from remote medical rescues to wildfire mitigation inspections — has surged in recent years, stretching small specialist teams and prompting new hiring, grant spending and interagency coordination to protect homeowners in wildland-urban interface areas.

Sheriff John Fann opened the discussion and Chief Justin Weitzel, chief of emergency services for the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, described three core areas of change: title and organizational alignment to improve interagency briefings; an Emergency Operations Medical Unit that provides paramedic care in austere environments; and an expanded mitigation program centered on the Phantom Canyon crew and the county’s wildfire partners work.

Weitzel said the office changed internal titles so emergency staff use fire-service nomenclature when coordinating with fire departments and the U.S. Forest Service. He described a two‑paramedic Emergency Operations Medical Unit — locally known by staff as “Bam” (Battalion Chief Jeff Basmanowitz) and Tyler — that does advanced care on-scene in remote locations and does not provide patient transport. "They carry a lot of gear, ropes, helmets, life jackets, PFDs, to be able to go in those environments and be safe," Weitzel said, adding the medics stabilize patients for ambulances or medevac flights rather than transporting them.

Commissioners pressed how the medical unit coordinates with volunteer fire districts and local ambulance services; Weitzel said the paramedics act as a force multiplier by providing advanced care and organizing transport when local volunteer departments are overwhelmed.

The Phantom Canyon crew, a 20-person seasonal mitigation crew (eight full‑time overhead staff plus seasonal personnel), continues to do both county mitigation projects and mutual‑aid deployments around the country. The county reported those out‑of‑county deployments are reimbursable through federal programs and typically return funds within months. Weitzel said the county used the crew to do local mitigation, to assist Poudre Fire Authority on small wildland responses, and to perform prioritized roadway egress and evacuation corridor work; Emergency Management staff secured just over $4,000,000 in grant funding to support several years of that roadside mitigation.

The sheriff’s office described a Mitigation Assistance Program (MAP) that performed a proof of concept in 2024 on two properties that could not afford or physically complete mitigation work; Phantom Canyon crews removed brush and hauled material away using county equipment. Funding for that pilot derives in part from fees collected for the county’s “gold standard” home ignition zone inspections. Weitzel and others said the gold standard inspection and certification have helped some homeowners obtain insurance after prior denials, though no comprehensive data on premium reductions was offered.

Wildfire partners staffing is a near‑term focus. Battalion Chief Derek Rosenquist is carrying the program while the county completes final interviews to fill a recently vacated wildfire partners coordinator role; commissioners were told three finalists remained and the county hoped to hire within weeks. Officials also said the county is training local community ambassadors and leveraging volunteers to expand inspection capacity in places such as Poudre Canyon, Red Feather Lakes and Glen Haven.

The sheriff’s office plans to implement zone fire restrictions aligned with National Weather Service fire‑weather zones: three elevation bands that will determine where burning and campfire rules apply. Weitzel said the county is finalizing a public website, coordination with road and bridge for signage, and an outreach plan with the commissioners’ public information office before activating the new zone system, likely within about a month.

Officials described technology partnerships to speed detection and situational awareness: Panomorph/Pano AI ground cameras already installed at four county sites and Aurora Tech satellite detection feeds that provide updates roughly every six to eight minutes when unobstructed by clouds. Weitzel said Larimer County has early access to Aurora Tech feeds in the United States. The office is also using rain gauges, river gauges, fixed‑wing and multirotor drones (four in emergency services and about fifteen countywide), an underwater drone for dive rescue, and a new mitigation mapping project to track where mitigation work has occurred across multiple organizations.

Commissioners and staff discussed fiscal impacts. Weitzel warned that recent federal pay increases for wildland firefighters will raise the cost of federal mutual aid by an estimated 25 to 35 percent on incidents that use federal crews. At the same time the Phantom Canyon crew’s seasonal payroll has been funded largely with grants; the office has targeted covering about 80 percent of those costs with grant funds and reported reaching about 86 percent in the prior year.

The session included several operational invitations and next steps: an open legislator day at the emergency services building planned for July 12 to brief state lawmakers and an intention to expand camera and satellite partnerships as funding allows. Commissioners raised potential policy ideas, including discussion of flight/transport fees and increased use of local conservation corps and community hubs for spotter training and mitigation work.

No formal board votes or ordinance actions were taken during the update; items reported are staffing changes, program development, grant awards and planned administrative actions that the sheriff’s office said it will continue to implement with county staff and partner agencies.