Bouncy houses, slides, and obstacle courses will take over West Metro Fire Rescue's training campus in Lakewood on September 26, when the department throws open its gates for the 31st Annual West Metro Family Fire Muster. The free event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the West Metro training center at 3535 S. Kipling, and organizers are again offering a free school bus shuttle from D'Evelyn High School for families who don't want to hunt for parking.
According to West Metro Fire Rescue, the muster will include live firefighting demonstrations, interactive firefighter experiences, and photo spots alongside the inflatable attractions. The department is also using the day to deliver injury prevention and emergency preparedness education, including lessons on home, school, car, walking, and biking safety. Last year's 30th anniversary muster drew nearly 5,000 parents and children to the same Lakewood training facility, according to West Metro Fire Protection District, underscoring how the event has become the agency's signature public outreach effort over more than three decades.
A Training Ground That Doubles as a Regional Rescue Hub
Families wandering the grounds on muster day will actually be standing inside a working emergency infrastructure hub rather than a simple park or fairground. The Kipling Street site is a 42,000-square-foot facility with classrooms, offices, warehouse space, and specialized live-fire props including a Class A burn building, per West Metro Fire Protection District. The same campus also serves as headquarters for Colorado Task Force 1, one of 28 FEMA Urban Search and Rescue teams in the country, according to 5280Fire, with the 200-member task force deploying specialists to structural collapses and disasters nationwide.
West Metro Fire Rescue traces its roots to 1995, when voters approved a permanent merger between the Lakewood Fire Protection District and the Bancroft Fire Protection District, after the two agencies had already operated as a combined fire authority since 1992. Today the district covers more than 108 square miles and serves nearly 300,000 residents across Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, Morrison, Edgewater, Golden, and unincorporated parts of Jefferson and Douglas counties, running 17 fire stations staffed by more than 400 firefighters. All of those uniformed personnel are also certified wildland firefighters, since much of the district's western border sits along wildfire-prone terrain, according to Fire Adapted Colorado.
A Department Stretched Thin by Call Volume and Rising Costs
The playful atmosphere of the muster masks an agency under real operational pressure. West Metro Fire Rescue responded to 42,279 calls for emergency assistance in 2025, averaging roughly one call every 12 minutes across its service area, and emergency call volume across the district grew 21% between 2017 and 2025, per the Neighborhood Gazette. Medical emergencies now dominate the workload, with 26,372 EMS calls and 19,049 hospital transports in 2025 alone — 62% of everything the department handled.
Those rising demands come with a steep price tag. The average cost of a fire engine climbed from $720,000 in 2018 to $1.3 million by 2026, and cardiac monitor prices nearly tripled over the same span, jumping from $25,000 to $60,000, the outlet reports. Complicating matters further, West Metro Fire Protection District has not received a voter-approved property tax rate increase since 2006, even as its 2006 bond debt remains on track to be fully paid off by 2027.
Getting There and What to Expect
Organizers are steering attendees to park at D'Evelyn High School rather than the training center itself, with the free shuttle bus running families directly to the muster grounds. The event remains free to attend, continuing its three-decade run as a hands-on introduction to fire safety for local kids. For a department fielding tens of thousands of calls a year, the muster offers a rare chance for residents to meet the crews and see the equipment up close, away from an actual emergency scene.
West Metro's outreach efforts have made local headlines beyond the annual muster. In August, the department presented a hero award to a Lakewood man who caught a falling child, and crews have spent much of the year responding to incidents ranging from a brush fire near Lakeside Amusement Park to residential explosions on Lakewood streets. The September 26 muster gives families a chance to see that same crew roster in a far lighter setting, surrounded by bouncy houses instead of emergency lights.
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