19/07/2026
Hello to all our New Followers brought about by Goldie The Fire Goat!
We appreciate you being here and wanted to post again a little more about the SOCO Fire Team and who we are. Please reach out if you ever have any questions or want to know more
We’ve had numerous agencies — not only from Colorado, but from across the country — reach out with questions like:
• “Who exactly are you?”
• “What is the SOCO concept?”
• “We want to build an interagency partnership too — how did you do it?”
We love the engagement and the interest. So here’s a starting point to help answer those questions.
How SOCO Began:
Interagency cooperation in wildland fire isn’t new. But in a time of increasing fire frequency and complexity, the spirit of collaboration led to the birth of the SOCO concept here along the Front Range of southeast Colorado.
SOCO is simply the branding of a multi-agency team made up of nine (9) fire departments that came together to share resources and accomplish three primary goals:
1. Staff apparatus that might otherwise sit unstaffed or require cross-staffing.
2. Reduce time away from home districts for paramedics, structure firefighters, and other specialized personnel during extended wildland assignments.
3. Create an operational agreement allowing firefighters from any partner agency to operate on any partnership apparatus — whether in-district, on mutual aid, or on national assignments.
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What SOCO Is Not
• SOCO is not an independent nonprofit organization.
o While we do maintain a 501(c)(3) charitable status to accept tax-deductible donations (which support equipment and training needs), we are not a standalone nonprofit entity.
• SOCO is not a private business, contractor, or NGO.
• SOCO does not and cannot bill for responses or mutual aid.
o Any reimbursable expenses from resource orders are handled directly through the host agencies for their personnel and equipment.
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What SOCO Is
• An all-volunteer team of approximately 85 members.
• A partnership of nine fire departments, representing 16 agencies across our membership.
• Firefighters who are:
o NWCG qualified
o Members in good standing of one of the partner fire departments
o Covered under their host agency’s liability, workers’ compensation, and operational policies
o Maintained within the Incident Qualification System (IQS)
• Apparatus that is:
o Owned, titled, and insured by fire departments with FDID
o Listed under Colorado Resource Rate Form (CRRF) agreements
o Entered into the Interagency Resource Ordering Capability (IROC) system
Some apparatus display the SOCO logo alongside the department identifier to recognize the interagency partnership.
Beyond our nine core departments, the SOCO team regularly trains and works alongside many additional fire agencies throughout the region.
At its core, SOCO is simply a shared Wildland Division — a force multiplier — serving multiple departments instead of just one.
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In Short
When SOCO responds, it operates legally under the signed authority of multiple agencies through an intergovernmental agreement and team charter.
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We hope this helps clarify who we are and how we operate.
We believe the SOCO model — and others like it — should be celebrated and supported. More importantly, we hope the spirit behind SOCO continues to build a lasting legacy of interagency cooperation through both our actions and our words — wherever the need exists.
Our goal is simple: create a place for those who want to serve their communities as wildland firefighters while strengthening protection across our region.
A sincere thank you to our fire departments and districts for their unwavering support in protecting our communities and citizens. See less
