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Summit Fire & EMS officially opens its new Silverthorne station, Station 10

Construction began in April 2024 after Silverthorne residents advocated for the station's construction

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Board treasurer John Piotti, third from left, and Fire Marshall Kim McDonald, fourth from left, smile while decoupling the hose strung in front of the new Summit Fire & EMS Station 10 in Silverthorne, officially opening it June 4.
Kyle McCabe/Summit Daily News

Silverthorne residents, first responders and other community members gathered Wednesday to celebrate the official opening of Summit Fire & EMS Station 10, located off Colorado Highway 9 and Golden Eagle Road in Silverthorne.

With Silverthorne residents pushing for the station, Joe Ben Slivka, the Summit Fire & EMS board president, said the department was happy to complete the project on time and on budget.

“If anybody’s ever done a construction project in Summit County, those two words have never been said in the same sentence, ever,” Slivka said, prompting laughter from the crowd.

Signage on the new Summit Fire & EMS Station 10 in Silverthorne was added well before its official opening June 4.
Kyle McCabe/Summit Daily News

Steve Lipsher, the Summit Fire & EMS public information officer, said the station cost around $9.5 million, which was within the amount budgeted. He said the department broke ground on the station in April 2024 and received the certificate of occupancy in April 2025, emphasizing that a construction timeline like that is rare in Summit County.

Making purchases and improvements without taking on debt has been a focus of Summit Fire & EMS boards for a long time, Lipsher said. Knowing a fire engine lasts about 10 years, he said, the board will save money for 10 years so it can purchase a debt-free engine.

“It’s not fair to you and me, the taxpayers, to be paying interest on that engine,” Lipsher said. “Nobody thinks debt service is a good use of tax dollars. A good use of tax dollars is (to) pay cash up front and own it outright and then budget for the next.”

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Slivka said some features of the station were designed with the crew members’ health in mind. He gave examples of what he called simple features that will help lower the risk of heart disease and cancer, which are common in the profession.

“It includes a gear room in an engine bay with an isolated ventilation system designed to reduce exposure to carcinogens,” Slivka said. “(The station) includes dim nighttime lighting used to transition from sleep to emergency response.”

The department gave ceremonial axes to representatives from SEH Inc. and Hyder Construction, the companies that designed and built the station, respectively. Lipsher said the companies were “extraordinary partners.”

“That was kind of a nice honor that you might not normally see at the construction of a new building like this,” Lipsher said. “We could not be more pleased with how this building turned out.”

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Instead of the traditional ribbon cutting, representatives of the department, SEH and Hyder posed for a photo behind a hose hanging between two poles in front of one of the garage doors and uncoupled it to officially open the station.

“Welcome to Silverthorne’s new fire station,” Lipsher said. “Please come on in. We’ve got cupcakes for your enjoyment, and we’ll be glad to give tours of this beautiful new facility that you all built for us.”

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The station is strategically placed to reduce response times, Slivka said, something that drove Silverthorne residents like Gaylene Bruskotter to advocate for the new station.

“Having our fire station in a different town, on the other side of I-70, was not logistically a good place to be,” Bruskotter said. “Especially on holiday weekends or bad weather accidents.”

Bruskotter said a station in Silverthorne had been discussed for several years, but when it sounded like plans were being scrapped, she and some neighbors started going to meetings, talking to their neighbors, contacting elected officials and gaining support for the station to be built.

“I think it just took some education to get the ball rolling again,” Bruskotter said. “Then once it got started, it was — I can’t say enough good about Chief (Travis) Davis and Steve (Lipsher) and all of them that did so much to help us get this moving forward.”

Although she was happy to see the station she called “imperative” be completed, Bruskotter missed the grand opening because she caught COVID-19 on a trip to France. Lipsher, who Bruskotter said has become a friend, said he gave her a hard time about missing the free cupcakes.

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Lipsher said the location and the station’s wildfire engine will help the department respond to smoke sightings down the valley more quickly and get to the scene of a potential wildfire faster.

“They’re rolling out in that,” Lipsher said about the wildfire engine. “They’re going to be first on the scene of a potential wildfire. A quick response on a wildfire is really the best way to ensure that we don’t get a big wildfire.”

In addition to the wildfire engine — Wildland 10 — Summit Fire & EMS Station 10 houses an ambulance, Medic 10, and fire engine, Engine 10, Lipsher said. The staff at the station, he added, are firefighter medics, meaning they can serve in either capacity.

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The number of firefighter medics stationed in Silverthorne will vary based on things like time of year and call volume, Lipsher said, but will generally be between two and five. 

When there are only two firefighter medics at the station, Lipsher said they can still respond to calls in the fire engine, which normally requires three people to operate. He said they would not make an initial attack on a fire until they had support, “which is four minutes down the road.”

“The other important thing to remember is this station is not operating in a vacuum,” Lipsher said. “We are part of a network of five, now, 24-hour response stations.”

While the new station’s bedrooms are simple, Lipsher said the living spaces are designed to give the crew members what they need to be comfortable, like recliner chairs in front of a television.

“Can they unwind in the evenings and watch some TV? You bet. Can they go catch up on their sleep? Absolutely,” Lipsher said. “The idea being, though, is when that alarm sounds, no matter what they’re doing, they’re out the door.”

He added that the accommodations help the crew members train, with the television set up for two-way communication for remote trainings, helping the department conserve fuel by not driving engines from one station to another for classroom instruction.

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