About Us
Hotchkiss Fire District (formerly Delta County Fire Protection District # 4) covers 120 square miles in Delta County, Colorado including the areas of Black River, Cottonwood Creek, Elmwood Homestead, Fire Mountain Canal, Flying W Ranch, Hanson Mesa, Horse Park, Lazear, Leroux Creek, Oak Mesa, Hanson Mesa, Powell Mesa, Redlands Mesa, Rimrock, River Ridge, Rogers Mesa, Shart Draw, Silver Sage, Spurlin Mesa, Stingley Gulch, Stoney Creek, Whipple Gulch, and Wolf Ranch Park. (FDID #02935) (Department Wildland Identifier: CO-HOTX)
Hotchkiss Fire District was formed in 1952 as the Hotchkiss Fire Department from the remnants of several volunteer fire companies dating from the 1890’s including Redlands Mesa Volunteer Fire Department. In 1956, the Delta County Fire Protection District # 4 was formed. In 2025, they changed their legal name to the Hotchkiss Fire District, which had been the agency's common name for decades.
Hotchkiss Fire District has 32 volunteer firefighters serving and protecting approximately 4000 residents across 120 square miles. They maintain two stations and a fleet of eight apparatus (fire trucks, ladder trucks, brush trucks), two UTVs, two Rescue Boats, two Command Vehicles, and several trailers. Each of these pieces of equipment is highly specialized and vital to fire protection and rescue operations.
The District relies solely on volunteers, who are on-call 24/7/365, responding from work or home. These firefighters willingly give their time and energy, expecting nothing in return other than having the proper tools and PPE to get the job done as safely as possible.
A majority of the homes within the District could be considered to be at a moderate to high risk of destruction by wildfire. Grass, brush and agricultural fires make up about 90% of their fire calls. To prepare for this danger, Hotchkiss Fire maintains a fleet of three brush trucks and two UTV’s that are used in fighting wildland fires, along with miles of hose, dozens of fittings, several portable water tanks, water pumps, a 2000-gallon water tender, and a wide array of other specialized tools and equipment.
Hotchkiss Fire District sponsors their volunteer firefighters, along with about a dozen “cooperators” from across the region, to become qualified and available to deploy on large wildfires and other disasters nation-wide. Through this program, Hotchkiss Fire personnel contribute to the national response capability of our country, assisting communities in need during crises and disasters.
Several Hotchkiss Fire personnel are also members of Colorado’s Southwest Incident Management Team, a Type 3 All-Hazards emergency response organization. They gain operational confidence and pride in knowing that our community is backed up by a skilled and capable team that is available to respond if our community ever has an incident that exceeds local resource capabilities.
Hotchkiss Fire District residents achieved a significant improvement in their ISO rating, moving to an ISO Class 5 (down from older Class 9 ratings) around July 2020, a change that helps lower fire insurance costs for businesses and residents in their area. (Note: ISO ratings range from 1 to 10, with Class 1 being the best, so a Class 5 is a strong rating).