South Metro Fire Rescue just keeps getting bigger.
Less than two weeks after the fire and emergency services provider by subsuming the Littleton and Cunningham fire protection districts, South Metro Fire Rescue is now planning to take on firefighting duties for 96,000-resident Highlands Ranch as well.
If voters in Highlands Ranch, as well as voters in the Littleton Fire Protection District, approve the mergers at a special election next May, South Metro will count more than 450,000 people across the south metro area under its jurisdiction — making it Colorado’s second-largest firefighting agency after Denver.
The Highlands Ranch Metro District, which made the announcement Wednesday, said pending voter approval the merger will be official starting Jan. 1, 2019.
“We owe it to Highlands Ranch residents to continue to provide the best available fire and emergency services,” Metro District board chair Jim Worley said in a statement. “We believe inclusion in South Metro Fire Rescue will provide a higher level of service than we are currently receiving.”
Highlands Ranch, which is in unincorporated Douglas County and ranks as one of the metro area’s largest master-planned communities, has been served by Littleton Fire Rescue for nearly 40 years.
Assuming Highlands Ranch’s tie-up with South Metro goes forward, Littleton Fire Rescue would be reduced to serving just the city of Littleton. Kristin Eckmann, a spokeswoman for South Metro Fire Rescue, said joining forces with South Metro.
In its news release Wednesday, the Highlands Ranch Metro District said South Metro “has indicated they will be able to employ the current Littleton paramedics and firefighters who are familiar with this community” once the merger becomes official.
Until the trio of merger announcements were made this month, Centennial-based South Metro Fire Rescue served just over 200,000 people in several cities across the southern suburbs.