{"id":805133,"date":"2020-03-11T17:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=380317"},"modified":"2020-03-11T17:45:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T23:45:00","slug":"summit-fire-chief-jeff-berino-receives-friscos-finest-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-fire-chief-jeff-berino-receives-friscos-finest-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit Fire Chief Jeff Berino receives Frisco\u2019s Finest Award"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Frisco Mayor Gary Wilkinson presents Summit Fire & EMS Chief Jeff Berino with the Frisco’s Finest Award on March 10, 2020. <\/strong>
Sawyer D\u2019Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 The Frisco Town Council on Tuesday evening honored Summit Fire & EMS Chief Jeff Berino with the Frisco\u2019s Finest Award, presented to residents who\u2019ve made considerable contributions to the town and greater Summit County community.<\/p>\n

Mayor Gary Wilkinson, a longtime friend of Berino\u2019s, presented the award at Frisco Town Hall in front of a crowd \u2014 which included a number of Berino\u2019s fellow firefighters and his wife, Janis \u2014 noting several of Berino\u2019s achievements during his 40 years of service as an emergency responder.  <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about Frisco and who is a part of Frisco, there\u2019s no doubt that you\u2019ve always been there,\u201d Wilkinson said. \u201cYou\u2019ve been available, you\u2019ve been a valuable member of the community, and you deal with so many different things. \u2026 You understood what Frisco was and is, and that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berino moved in 1979 to Frisco, where he\u2019s lived ever since. He began working as a ski instructor at Copper Mountain Resort in winter and as a construction worker in summer. He soon made his way into the world of firefighting in the area, taking on a summer job with a wildland hand crew before serving in a volunteer position with the Frisco Fire District the next year. He\u2019d also go on to volunteer with the former Summit County Ambulance Service for more than eight years in the 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n

Berino took the opportunity to reminisce about some of the old days serving with the department.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been such a pleasure to grow up in this town during my adult life,\u201d Berino said. \u201cAnd to watch this town grow from dirt main streets. When I started, the new things to call the fire department were pagers. I still have one \u2014 I\u2019m old school, and the guys in the back laugh at me. Before that, we had a tsunami siren that would summon everybody. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the \u201980s public works had one bay and two or three people. They\u2019d call the fire department, and we\u2019d just get in a snowplow and start driving. We didn\u2019t know where we were pushing the snow or what we were doing. But we got the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berino made his way through every rank in the fire service during his time in the county. He was named deputy chief in 2005 after the consolidation of three fire districts into Lake Dillon Fire Rescue, and he took the helm as chief in 2015.<\/p>\n

In addition to his work with the district, Berino has served on the county\u2019s EMS board, on the county building board of review and taught fire science and EMS at Colorado Mountain College for more than 10 years \u2014 earning instructor of the year twice.<\/p>\n

Berino also has been integral in a number of administrative changes of late, overseeing the merger between Lake Dillon Fire Rescue and Copper Mountain Fire, the consolidation of the Summit County Ambulance Service with Summit Fire & EMS, and helping to usher the district into its new administration building at the County Commons. <\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly, Berino responded to some of the area\u2019s most critical incidences, including the Loaf & Jug explosion in 2004<\/a>, managing response to Montezuma floods in 2014 and serving as incident commander during the 2018 Buffalo Mountain Fire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among other accolades, Berino has received multiple life saving awards from the Summit County Sheriffs Office, along with the Lake Dillon Fire Medal of Valor for his response to the Ophir Mountain Fire in 2005. Just last year, Berino was named Colorado Fire Chief of the Year before announcing his retirement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Berino is set to leave in July, community members likely will still see him out and about at events around the county. As a licensed pyrotechnician, he frequently volunteers to help with fireworks displays in Frisco and Copper along with Frisco\u2019s annual Spontaneous Combustion Bonfire.<\/p>\n

Berino also regularly participates in races throughout the area, including successfully completing 10 consecutive Leadville Trail 100 races, the Frisco Turkey Day 5K, the LAPS Canine 4K and more.<\/p>\n

With a brief chance to look back, Berino lauded the many individuals he\u2019s worked with over the years, along with town staff and his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice coming to work for the past 40 years having a purpose,\u201d Berino said. \u201c\u2026 It\u2019s knowing that when people call they\u2019re having the worst day of their lives, and that\u2019s what keeps us going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t do it without that crew, or without a great town staff and all the help from previous town councils. And my wife \u2014 having to go at 3 in the morning, having to go in the middle of dinner. I couldn\u2019t do it without all of your support. I\u2019m honored to be a part of this community, and I\u2019m not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frisco Mayor Gary Wilkinson presents Summit Fire & EMS Chief Jeff Berino with the Frisco’s Finest Award on March 10, 2020. Sawyer D\u2019Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 The Frisco Town Council on Tuesday evening honored Summit Fire & EMS Chief Jeff Berino with the Frisco\u2019s Finest Award, presented to residents who\u2019ve made considerable contributions to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-805133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-19 11:20:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}