The first fire protection efforts in Evergreen were initiated by Ernest King and his colleagues of the Mountain Parks Protective Association. The MPPA was a non-profit group of community members who pledged their time and resources to patrol the collection of homes that had developed in the valleys north and south of Bear Creek in Jefferson, Clear Creek and Park Counties. Members who had been deputized by the local sheriff supplemented the efforts of law enforcement officers checking on suspicious people and vehicles, spraying trees for beetles, helping tourists and watching for prowlers. They also responded to fires. King and the MPAA responded to the Riel Mercantile fire in November 1926, forming a bucket brigade from Bear Creek to the ever-growing conflagration. Following the fire, which caused $50,000 in damage and destroyed seven buildings, King acquired a truck and some firefighting equipment for the MPPA, thus establishing fire protection in the Evergreen community.

Evergreen’s residents decided to establish an official fire department in 1948. “We met at the schoolhouse, and we all chipped in to buy some equipment . . . We started out with a pump and a hose and a Dodge power wagon,” A.R. Clark, one of Evergreen Fire/Rescue’s founding members said. They outfitted the truck with hose and a pump from the State Forestry Department. Mary Quaintance donated land on Main Street for a fire house and the new firefighters built their new home.

Back in 1952, a young girl was struck by a car as she tried to cross Main Street. She remained on the street -- battered, bleeding and slowly dehydrating as she cried -- for over an hour as she and bystanders waited for an ambulance to respond from Denver. That wait would never happen again. Evergreen’s leading citizens, many of whom had helped establish the fire department four years earlier, raised enough money to buy a station wagon and convert it into an ambulance. Thus began the Evergreen Ambulance Service. Firefighters joined the ranks of this fledgling organization to improve the service offered to their neighbors.

Evergreen Ambulance merged with Evergreen Fire Department’s Rescue Squad in 1986, creating the Evergreen Emergency Medical Services. One year later this service officially became part of the Evergreen Fire Protection District and EMTs joined the payroll. Other personnel also found jobs with the district because it had expanded enough that it needed permanent employees to keep the fire department functioning at its best. The staff has grown through the years to keep pace with the service Evergreen’s residents deserve from their “all-hazard” fire department.

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