Sugar Loaf Fire Protection District's stations may finally get indoor plumbing

The Sugar Loaf Fire Protection District has cleared one set of hurdles in its plans to finally provide indoor plumbing, with running water and flush toilets, at two of its fire stations.

The fire district intends to drill water wells and install septic systems on the 3.56-acre parcel that's home to Sugar Loaf's Station No. 1, at 1677 Lost Angel Road, and the 1.52-acre parcel at 1360 Sugarloaf Road, the site of the district's Station No. 2.

Boulder County commissioners recently awarded official county recognition to both those properties, designating them as Community Facility Lots.

Battalion chief John Winchester, the Sugar Loaf department's former chief who represented the district at the county commissioners' Dec. 9 hearing, said that he and others have been working since 1997 to get to the point they'd have water available inside the stations for drinking, sanitary and gear-washing purposes.

Winchester said that when he and his wife joined the department and saw the stations, she asked: "How come we don't have a bathroom?"

Normally, rural fire districts' properties are exempt from local zoning jurisdiction, but Sugar Loaf discovered that it needed the county recognition of the two properties in order to seek state well permits.

Both stations now have composting toilets but don't have running water or onsite wastewater septic systems.

Sugar Loaf officials have said their mountain fire district covers about 18.5 square miles, following Colo. 119 in Boulder Canyon from the Tunnel to Rogers Park, the eastern nine miles of Sugarloaf Road and the eastern two miles of Magnolia Road. It serves about 500 homes, about 1,500 residents, Boulder's Betasso water treatment plant, open space areas belonging to the city of Boulder and Boulder County and several thousand acres of the Arapahoe-Roosevelt National Forest.

The 40 volunteers on the district's active roster respond to about 110 fire-related and medical calls each year.

The fire district was formed in 1967 and has been using Stations No. 1 and 2 since that time. Both stations are unmanned and primarily are used to house trucks and equipment, although they also serve as facilities for occasional multi-departmental training exercises.

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Sugar Loaf Fire Protection District's stations may finally get indoor plumbing