South Metro Fire teaming up with high schoolers to help people during winter storm

LITTLETON, Colo. — On Friday, as communities across Colorado braced for snow, members of South Metro Fire Rescue teamed up with high schoolers from the Arapahoe Rescue Patrol. 

The group is a professional search and rescue team made up entirely of high school students, except for a few adults who oversee the program.

While they are primarily a search and rescue organization, they also support local fire departments and law enforcement agencies. On Friday, Lieutenant Mikinley Way said that meant helping to clear a path through the snow for other first responders. 

“What you don’t realize is a medic may go out and get stuck and we respond and we help or someone is in their house and they can’t get out,” Way said. 

It’s a task that may seem small, but South Metro Fire Rescue spokesperson Brian Willie said it’s crucial to helping people during a storm. 

“We know people aren’t going to be out shoveling — they are going to be toasty and comfortable inside — but our medics and our firefighters are gonna need to get that path to the front door and the roads,” said Willie. 

Willie said this is the second time they have worked with the all-teenage group of first responders. The first time was during a snowstorm on March 14. 

On Friday, Way said she was working during the March snowstorm and said that experience has prepared her and many others for another potentially long night. 

“We were essential to helping South Metro out and we made sure their medics could get out,” she said. “We spent a good 30 minutes on one call.” 

It’s a job that Way said her crew is proud to do. 

“A lot of us got a snow day today from our school and that meant for most people staying at home watching movies eating ice cream,” she said. “For us — that meant getting up getting outside, trying to get down to our headquarters to run this call and make sure it went well.”

“They could be at home in the warmth as well, but they are out helping us and helping their community,” Willie said.