
The Elk Creek Fire Protection District was established in 1948 as a volunteer bucket brigade following a restaurant fire off Hwy 285. Two of its members, Rudy and Harlan Long, provided the land where the original, fire house on the hill would be built for $10, a landmark when leaving town after a mountain getaway.

In 1963, a new house for the Elk Creek Fire, station #1 was built near Richmond Hill, the Long’s bought back the original fire house for $10 and out of it began to conduct their ambulance services that had been running through the mountains for some time. They retired from their transportation services in 1978.
In 1999, the Elk Creek Fire Station #1 fire house was declared eligible to be listed in the National Register for Historic Places. It was designated a Jefferson County Historic Landmark in 2004.

Sadly, that station was destroyed by an out-of-control semi-tractor trailer in 2007.
Currently, Elk Creek Fire has four Stations as a combination department with twenty career line staff and thirty volunteers throughout administration, fleet, etc. Also, apart of the Type 2 Wildland Fire Module, there are 5 full-time and 20 seasonal Wildland firefighters. The district covers 100sqmi above the foothills of the metro Denver area, rural-mountain community with a call volume at approximately 1,325 calls per year, and station three sits at one of the highest elevations for a fire station in the country at 9,712ft.
Next year, after 75 years of service, Elk Creek will work toward merging with their two all-volunteer neighbors and become one department.