CORTEZ JOURNAL SATURdAy, JUNE 30, 2012 3B

out on Friday, knew that there would be no pay for their work. The rewards would come in a different way.

Maybe a handshake or a pat on the back, but the Mancos department knows that if and when a fire or another emergen-cy occurs in a neighbor-ing community, they will grab their gear and rush to help those communi-ties in need.

Mancos firefighter Nata-sha Aspromonte, who was one of the more than 20 first responders to the We-ber Fire, said she had to remain focused on the job.

“You detach your emo-tions while trying to get as many firefighters out there as possible,” she said.

“We knew everything down there in the canyon that was threatened,” she said.

The fire grew incred-ibly fast, jumping from 30 acres, to 100 to 300 and to 800 acres in 24 hours.

But there was success.“The structures are still

standing,” Aspromonte said. “We have not lost one yet.”

That fact brings pride to the Mancos department.

She said the volunteer fire department is now watching over the entire community, but added if a home is threatened, firefighters will be sent there to sit by the house to implement precautions to save the structure.

Mancos firefighter Wy-att Cox said the volunteer department takes pride in saving homes and it’s extremely important in a small community that bands together in difficult times.

Cox said he knew many of the evacuees and he feels bad for them.

“It just wants you to work that much harder to save their homes,” he said. But he said that the department fights hard to save every home whether it’s a wildfire or an indi-vidual structure fire.

Dolores, Lewis Arriola, Pleasant View and Rico departments were among those volunteer units that responded to the Weber Fire.

Other fire districts and departments

The Cortez Fire Protec-tion District firefighters, who helped fight the We-ber Fire, were funded by the federal government, not the district, said Cor-tez Fire Protection Dis-trict Fire Chief Jeff Vande-voorde.

He said trying to bal-

ance its time between working on the Weber Fire near Mancos and serving the residents of Cortez was the challenge.

He said using a few fire-fighters to help out with the Weber Fire did not de-plete services from the lo-cal community too much.

Every day the district sends two firefighters and a brush truck from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. to the Weber Fire while being vigilant on having manpower avail-able for emergencies in Cortez.

“It really doesn’t put a burden on us,” he said. “We just have to be very careful not to deplete our manpower.”

Vandevoorde said two firefighters and a tanker just returned after help-ing fight the High Park fire near Fort Collins for two weeks.

He said the two fire-fighters were sent to the Northern Colorado fire well before the Weber Fire started on Friday.

Lewis Arriola Fire Pro-tection District Chief George Deaver said his 28-member volunteer department still has two structure engines and six firefighters in Mancos. He said they will be there un-til there is no longer any danger to homes.

Deaver said some of the services it provided will be paid through a mutual-aid contract through the state, and some services will be a volunteer assist with no compensation.

“We would have been there helping them out whether or not we were getting paid,” Deaver said.

Reach Michael Maresh at michaelm@cortezjour-nal.com

From Page 1B

Aid

Other departments also responded

“You detach your

emotions while trying

to get as many firefighters out there as

possible”

Natasha AspromonteMancos firefighter

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