The NoFloCo Mission Statement:  

To assist private property owners within the Wildland Urban Interface footprint with fire mitigation, fire awareness, forest health according to the tenents of the Cohesive Strategy; to make the community safer from fire danger, improve property appearance, and have fun.

NoFloCo Fire Mitigation Posse: A Grassroots Approach to Building a Fire-Adapted Community

Overview

The NoFloCo Fire Mitigation Posse is a volunteer community organization based in Teller County, Colorado.
Founded by residents dedicated to reducing wildfire risk, NoFloCo operates on a simple principle: neighbors helping neighbors. It represents a proactive, community-driven initiative focused on practical, on-the-ground mitigation work to create a safer, more resilient environment in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI).

Efforts and Activities

NoFloCo mobilizes volunteers for a wide range of fire-mitigation activities directly on private property.
Our core efforts include:

• Fuel Reduction: Clearing debris, removing “ladder fuels,” and thinning dead or diseased trees to disrupt potential fire paths.

• Education: Through NoFloCo University and specialty clinics (home hardening, vent screening, defensible-space design), residents learn practical, science-based prevention strategies.

• Firewood Recycling: Biomass removed during mitigation is converted into firewood and donated to families in need—turning hazardous fuel into a community benefit.

• Community Building: Workdays conclude with shared meals and open discussion, reinforcing NoFloCo’s cooperative spirit.

• Innovation and Technology: NoFloCo continually explores emerging wildfire-management tools such as low-intensity burning, water-misting systems, and robotic vegetation-clearing machines.

Successes

• Measurable Impact: NoFloCo’s direct action has physically altered the wildfire profile of hundreds of acres, making homes and neighborhoods safer.
  
  

• National Recognition: Recipient of the 2025 National Wildfire Mitigation Award from a coalition including the USDA Forest Service and the National Fire Protection Association, acknowledging the model’s effectiveness.
  
  

• Community Engagement: A strong, active volunteer base demonstrates that grassroots action can succeed where bureaucracy often falls short.

A Focus on Prevention and Resilience

NoFloCo’s focus is shifting the local mindset from reactive firefighting to proactive prevention. We invite officials to observe our operations and safety practices—professional-grade gear, on-site fire monitors, and coordinated communication systems. Our goal is to make Teller County residents both knowledgeable and self-reliant, transforming defensible-space work from an abstract idea into community action.

The Challenge: A Region at Risk

Teller County sits entirely within the Wildland-Urban Interface, where forest overgrowth and changing climate patterns make wildfire a question of when, not if.
Traditional firefighting resources cannot manage the vast fuel loads on thousands of private parcels. Meanwhile, many residents lack the knowledge or financial means to pay for commercial mitigation, leaving neighborhoods vulnerable.

A Collaborative Solution

NoFloCo provides a proven grassroots answer. By uniting trained volunteers—over 40 certified wildland firefighters and sawyers—we help property owners reduce risk before disaster strikes.
Our approach is efficient, scalable, and inclusive, ensuring that even seniors and low-income families can protect their homes. Every project creates defensible space that slows advancing fire and gives professional firefighters a safer environment to operate in.

Expanding the Vision: Funding Through Innovation

In September 2025, Don and Toni Moore met with FFPD Board Members Paul del Toro and Mark Harter to present a forward-looking proposal: a collaboration between NoFloCo and Wildfire Robotics, a Canadian company developing advanced wildfire-response technologies.

This partnership could position the Florissant Fire Protection District (FFPD) as a regional demonstration and training hub—attracting technology developers, forestry agencies, and research institutions for testing, certification, and education programs.

Rather than relying on future tax increases, this model offers sustainable funding streams through:

• Hosting training and certification courses for new wildfire-response technologies.

• Offering demonstration events and beta-testing sites for private companies and government partners.

• Establishing data-collection and evaluation partnerships with universities and state agencies.

• Pursuing joint grant applications that leverage public-private collaboration.

Such programs could generate recurring revenue for FFPD while showcasing its leadership in modern wildfire management.

Economic and Community Benefits

Positioning Florissant as a hub for wildfire-technology training and testing would attract visitors, stimulate local business, and strengthen regional collaboration.

It would also: Provide hands-on learning for firefighters and volunteers; Enhance local preparedness and inter-agency coordination; Demonstrate fiscal responsibility by replacing tax-based funding proposals with innovation-based income.

By the Numbers (As of April 30, 2026)

Total Members: 922
Purple Helmets: 120
Property Assessments: 645
Projects Completed: 249
Acres Mitigated: 497
Cords of Firewood Donated: 362
Subdivisions Impacted: 26
Volunteer Hours: 14,336
Certified Wildland Firefighters II: 43
Trained Sawyers (Type A/B): 17
Certified Burners: 17
BTUs of Fuel Removed: 15.9 billion

Your Support Fuels Community Resilience

Donations and partnerships are the lifeblood of NoFloCo’s mission. Every dollar—and every collaboration—translates directly into safer properties, stronger communities, and measurable wildfire-risk reduction.

Supporting this partnership model enables Teller County and the Florissant Fire Protection District to turn innovation into sustainability. It offers a practical alternative to tax increases—one rooted in action, collaboration, and a shared commitment to protecting what matters most.

Keeping a fire extinguisher in a passenger vehicle within a wildland fire-prone county is a highly safe, effective, and officially recommended wildfire mitigation strategy—provided you use a commercial-grade, rechargeable 2A:10B:C rated model that is securely mounted. [1, 2]

Given your rural reality of a 20-to-40-minute emergency response time, public land and forestry agencies actively encourage drivers to carry extinguishers to prevent small vehicle malfunctions from expanding into catastrophic forest fires. However, transitioning your mindset from a standard "car fire" to a "wildland mitigation" scenario shifts several critical safety requirements for the vehicle and the driver. [2, 3]

1. Upgrade to a Commercial-Grade 2A:10B:C Model

Most cheap automotive extinguishers sold at big-box stores carry a low 1-A or basic B:C rating, meaning they have minimal capacity to smother burning wood, brush, or grass. [1, 4]

• The Wildland Standard: For your specific goals, the Colorado Department of Transportation explicitly advises carrying an extinguisher with a Class A rating. [5]

• What to Look For: Look for a 2A:10B:C rated rechargeable unit. The "2A" equivalent means it packs the suppression power of 2.5 gallons of water on ordinary combustibles like dry brush, grass, and wood. [1]

2. Vehicle-Specific Fire Starters & Safety Precautions

In rural areas, vehicles themselves are the primary igniters of wildland blazes. If you spot a small fire or pull over with a mechanical issue, adhere to these safety protocols: [6]

• Never Park on Dry Grass: Your exhaust system and catalytic converters regularly reach temperatures exceeding 1,000°F. Parking a hot car over dry vegetation can ignite a massive wildfire in seconds. Always pull over onto a completely paved, gravel, or dirt shoulder. [2, 5, 7]

• Turn off the Ignition: If your vehicle is the source of the fire, turn off the engine immediately to stop the flow of pressurized fuel and electrical currents before attempting to use your extinguisher. [8, 9, 10, 11]

• Keep a Steel Shovel On Board: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officially recommends that rural and off-highway drivers carry a steel-blade shovel right alongside their fire extinguisher. If a small fire spreads into dry dirt or grass, a shovel is incredibly effective for tossing dirt to smother the flames and cutting a quick firebreak. [2, 12]

3. The Structural Safety of the Cylinder

Storing a pressurized cylinder inside a passenger cabin remains safe in hot, wildland environments if basic rules are followed:

• Secure the Mounting: In rural terrain or washboard dirt roads, a loose extinguisher can easily get damaged or roll under the brake pedal. Use a crash-tested metal vehicle bracket.

• The 6-Year Internal Check: Because vehicle vibration can pack down the dry chemical powder inside the cylinder over time, the NFPA 10 Fire Extinguisher Standards requires stored-pressure extinguishers to undergo an internal examination every 6 years and hydrostatic testing every 12 years to guarantee the canister's physical safety. [1]

4. Know When to Evacuate

An extinguisher is a tool of opportunity for spot fires (fires the size of a small campfire or smaller). If a fire has climbed into the brush canopy, is spreading rapidly due to high winds, or if you must step into an unburnt pocket of fuel to fight it, do not engage. In those scenarios, your extinguisher is strictly a tool to defend your exit path as you flee the area. [8, 13, 14, 15, 16]

https://www.partscounter.com/products/fire-extinguisher-class-abc-2-5-lb?variant=43475879231657&country=US&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23262278842&gbraid=0AAAAA9SHHhvtGeiG9m0SYffDzkokZfgPm&gclid=Cj0KCQjwornRBhCrARIsAON5exGzu5rWOH7NzcXKjQPu9zQpaAUWTwJLHZhhFN_l-FBQPRofTfiegU8aAspHEALw_wcB

[1] https://usmadesupply.com

[2] https://www.blm.gov

[3] https://www.redbluffdailynews.com

[4] https://www.fireline.com

[5] https://www.denver7.com

[6] https://www.elpasocountyhealth.org

[7] https://www.youtube.com

[8] https://www.facebook.com

[9] https://seeptrucker.com

[10] https://pswins.com

[11] https://munley.com

[12] https://www.tncfiremanual.org

[13] https://nationalgeneral.com

[14] https://www.kidde.com

[15] https://safety.fsu.edu

[16] https://gwaar.org

Safety Statement as of February 9, 2023:

We generally mark trees and habitat zones three days before a workday. We do this to ensure that we know property boundaries, have been thoughtful about which trees will be eliminated, to ensure we maintain and improve habitat for wildlife, and to protect trees to which property owners have an emotional attachment.

We always have at least 10 certified Fire Fighter 2s on workdays. NoFloCo will soon have 42 such volunteers within the organization. Some of the FF2s in our group have much more training than just FF2. They have been professional fire fighters,and hold a red card. We also have current and former US Forestry employees who have done proscribed burns professionally. Additionally, we have two professional arborists who lead our sawyers.  Don and Toni Moore have done controlled slash burns for 20 years in Florissant with no accidents or incidents.

All NoFloCo burns have a Teller County Burn Permit in the name of the property owner. We follow best practices, and are hosting a Certified Control Burn training for NoFloCo soon. We always have a safety check-in table, with safety sign-ins and reminders for all attendees. We bring a type 7 Fire Engine to all burns, to be prepared for the worst case emergency. Our NoFloCo slash burns only occur after notifying the Sheriff’s Department, the local Fire Department, the Office of Emergency Management, and the County Commissioners. We have dozens of fire monitors when we burn, burn only on approved burn days, and notify the public beforehand. All this is over and above the requirements from Teller County.  (As of October 2023 and the edited Ordinance #17 for Teller County, NoFloCo has ceased its burning operations.)

If anyone has any issues or concern about our safety procedures, we welcome them to call us or to make an unannounced visit to any of our work days. Our phone number and email addresses are posted publicly many places donmoore@nofloco.org or 719-839-0860) and we will happily and respectfully address any concerns anyone has. If they have criticisms that we can learn from we are very willing to listen and adapt as necessary. 

The posse members of NoFloCo are some of the very best people in Teller County. Together, they have served the community with over $130K in labor, donations, and services. They are heroes who make the community safer one property at a time.

For all those NoFloCo Posse' Members that have attended the Colorado Certified Burner "B" Training and Certification, per the Training & Student Work Book we were provided and as outlined the Colorado Prescribed Burning Act of 2013; in addition to preparing the Burn Plan an additional document is needed from the Private Land Owner. This is the Private Land Owner Ignition Authorization Form. For all Certified Burners, please note that all the items on the Form must be discussed with the Private Land Owner and signatures received from the Private Land Owner and yourself as the Certified Burner prior to ignition. A copy of this Form is provided in our Training & Student Work Book as Handout #2a. Thanks to the DFPC, Colorado Fire Camp, and our legal staff for keeping us updated on our responsibilities