About Us

5280Fire established in August of 2008 and started out with a collaborative effort of a small group of metro area fire buffs that made the decision to collaborate their photography work into a blog for firefighters to enjoy. We could not have imagined then what 5280Fire has become today. Our supporters have been loyal since the very beginning, helped spread the word about us, and watched the transformation from our amateur photo website into a professional source of images, training material, and historical reference. For those that have been with us on this journey since the beginning, we sincerely thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts.

Others have discovered us more recently and may not know that we are a 100% volunteer group. We share the kind of dedication that first responders can understand, our scanners are running 24 hours a day, we roll when the tones go out day or night, sunshine, rain, blizzard… then go to work the next day without much or even any sleep. It is our passion and we would not trade it for the world. Our priority is not to sensationalize stories for ratings, but to highlight the brave actions of first responders who we document. We do not want responders to worry about what we will be reporting when they see our cameras out. Although we are not bound by HIPAA, we chose to respect patient privacy to the best of our abilities. While we strive to get everything that we can, we are only able to volunteer the time that we have. Please understand that we will not be able to get photos of every single incident or be able to frequently visit all departments due to the availability of our volunteers.

5280Fire was originally started by Eric Hurst. His dedication and years invested into this website has made 5280Fire into what it is today. In 2017, the leadership role was assumed by Rick Luebke, a long time photographer that has been with 5280Fire since the beginning.

In 2017, the 5280Fire website was move to an simpler photography website as an attempt to reduce operating costs. The photography website was unfortunately more difficult to navigate and had less content so it was decided to return to a blog like format which has created the current website that you see today. The current version of the website was started in September of 2017 and was launched on April 30th, 2018 to return to the classic 5280Fire feel that was loved by many. The website has taken many hours, long days, and late nights to create with research on old and new photographs and historical information conducted by our dedicated volunteers and contributors.

We get asked a lot of what “5280” means, it is simple, it’s the number of feet in a mile and with Denver being famously nicknamed the “Mile High City” for its elevation, at 5,280 feet.

In 2022, 5280Fire became a 501(c)(3) organization as 5280Fire Inc. Our annual expenditure exceed $5,000 without factoring in capital improvements. The bulk of these costs are incurred by our dedicated volunteers that pay for their our own equipment and transportation. Occasional photograph sales and generous donations from local IAFFs have helped offset some of these expenses in the past. If you like to help us keep the website going with the operating costs, please take a look at our donation page.

We hope you enjoy the hard work we have put into 5280Fire and we thank you for all of your support!

If you are interested in contributing to our website as a volunteer, please contact us.