Finance, Facts & Figures

In 1880, Crested Butte was formally incorporated on July 3. Town population was about 400 and 1000 additional miners lived within a 3 mile radius. At this time, Crested Butte had its first fire department. Back then, the department consisted of two fire companies and a hook and ladder company. It has been told that a friendly yet enthusiastic rivalry grew between the companies. Crested Butte was a booming town and the infrastructure was hard to keep up with. The town was built wall-to-wall with the materials that were available back then…raw lumber, canvas, and cardboard insulation with paper. Most of the buildings were also heated with coal stoves. It’s easy to say that the whole town was one big fire hazard by today’s standards.

On January 25, 1890, a major section of the Crested Butte business district was destroyed by a fire partly due to frozen pipes. The infrastructure for the water system was built in 1880; however, the pipes were not buried deep enough, meaning they would generally freeze up for most of the winter. Without adequate water or equipment, the firefighters gave up on saving certain buildings or even a whole block to go on trying to save the rest of town. The only way they figured they could save the rest of the town was to use dynamite. This first major fire on the north side of town was contained to one block, but fifteen businesses burned to the ground that day.

Three years later, the second great fire started on the south side of Elk Avenue. Again, the water lines and hydrants were frozen! This is when the fire department wrote off that block and again resorted to dynamite. The explosion caused considerable damage to the City hall and Fire House, blowing a large hole in the side.

The fires of 1890 and 1893 were the worst fires the town had ever suffered. After all this, the water lines were buried deeper but unfortunately, the pipes would still freeze if there was not enough snow to insulate the ground. In 1901, the third major fire destroyed sections of downtown again. In 1927, the famed Elk Mountain House sat across from the CB Hardware Store until fire claimed its upper two floors. The building which is now Donita’s Cantina used to be the La Vida Hotel. To this day, if you look up at the ceiling in the main dining room, you can still see the original material that survived the fire. In 1937, the Company Store was destroyed by fire (pictured on the left) and replaced with a stucco building that is still the Company Store building today.

City Hall, on the corner Elk Avenue and 2nd Street, was Crested Butte’s original municipal building and the first Fire House. It was built in 1883. In 1952 the mine was going under because the use of coal declined and many homes switched to natural gas. In 1952 Crested Butte turned into a ghost town. After the ski area opened in 1963, Crested Butte came to life again. In September 1973, the Board of Crested Butte Fire Protection District (CBFPD) met for the first legal meeting. When authorized by the Gunnison County Commission, it was declared that the District was now in operation. In cooperation with the Town of Crested Butte, the Board took over the CBFPD that afternoon. This day was the culmination of a lengthy process carried out mainly by a very important person, John Liebson. Liebson was the founder, first volunteer fire chief and the first career fire chief of the Crested Butte Fire Protection District. In 1973, Dick Wingerson, President of the Board along with Ceil Murray, who was on the board at that time, helped to facilitate the first proper fire station in town. November 12, 1973 Fire Chief John Liebson, Ron Rouse and others started with the excavation dig for the new fire station. This was the day that the backhoe took its first scoop to put in the foundation for the building which was expected to be finished sometime in the spring of 1974.

There is so much more history behind the CBFPD. 1975 the Emergency Medical Service started with their first Ambulance. In 1995 CBFPD, expanded its jurisdiction to 220 square miles covering the upper Gunnison Valley. In 1994, Station 2 on Mt. Crested Butte was built. In 2004, Station 3 was built in Crested Butte South and in 2010, Buckhorn Station was built to help store the extra supplies and apparatus. As the town of Crested Butte changes and grows so does the CBFPD. With an amazing staff and some of the most amazing volunteers we continue to prosper.


I would like to thank all the folks, books, emails and businesses that helped me collaborate the History of the Crested Butte Fire Department. I first would like to thank the ladies at the Town of Crested Butte Building Department. They loaned me books, shared some great historical photos and indulged me with some great information. If you have not read “A Crested Butte Primer” by George Sibley, it is a must. Thank you Mr. Sibley for writing such a great book! I would like to also Thank the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum for all the dates of such events and old Crested Butte Pilot Newspapers with photos and articles. One of my main highlights was receiving a random email from John Liebson. Thank You Mr. Liebson and I am looking forward to future emails. I also want to Thank David and Scott-O for sharing their great stories. Thanks everyone for the information and sharing the enthusiasm I had to create the short version of the History of the Crested Butte Fire Department