New cinematic PSA for volunteer fire service has a Colorado connection

BY JO DAVIS JDAVIS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e lm “Odd Hours, No Pay, Cool Hat” became available on video on demand on July 27, and the lm has a Colorado connection. e lmmakers hope to bring more awareness and volunteers to the re service across the country, including to Je erson County re districts.

“Odd Hours, No Pay, Cool Hat” is a documentary about the 700,000 volunteer re ghters across the U.S. Directors Gary Matoso and Cameron Zohoori said that they knew little about the re service when they started the lm.

“When we originally got brought onto the project, we didn’t know very much about the volunteer re service,” Matoso said. “It was Peter Yoakum, our executive producer, who had this idea to make a lm to raise awareness, to let people just tell the story of the volunteer re service.”

Matoso explained that the original idea for the lm was to choose three re departments, three stories and deep dive into them. However, when they put out a call to the volunteer re departments across the country, the directors got a bit of a surprise.

“We just put out some casting calls and calls for via di erent re department resources to see if people had stories or might want to participate in the lm,” Matoso said. “We got ooded with submissions on that. We had, like 800 submissions come through within a couple of weeks.”

Some submissions even came from the area.

“We did have a couple of Denver submissions and Colorado submissions, for sure,” Matoso said. e directors then discussed a submission that almost made the

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“ ere was a small-town department that was in the mountains in Colorado,” co-director Zohoori said. “It has one major highway that goes through. ey’re just constantly responding to accidents on the road.”

Golden’s submission was one that was cut, but the department couldn’t con rm anything involving the submission.

According to Capt. Will Moorhead, the department was probably submitted by a former re chief.

“Our chief has changed since I think since they started shooting the lm,” Moorhead said. “And we just had a few people change over the last year and a half.” at turnover is part of a nationwide slump in volunteerism. ere’s a need to capture and to engage people who have an interest, in our case, an interest in technical rescue.”

“Volunteerism is dropping o all over the country,” Moorhead said. “... ere’s absolutely a need.

Moorhead said that technical rescue is part of what makes Golden Fire a “special case” when it comes to red departments. e department is a “combination department,” which is a combination of volunteer and paid re ghters and sta . e terrain is also di erent than most departments.

Moorhead described the department’s jurisdiction as “on the edge of a metropolitan area,” encom- passing some urban elements, the suburbs, rural areas, rivers and the mountains. e eclectic mix of terrain a ects the work of both volunteer and paid re ghters.

Moorhead said that they get regular calls for re and rescue, but the region that is Clear Creek Canyon adds a few more duties.

“It creates technical rescue challenge,” he said, explaining how Golden is easy to access for the metro population as well, so the department also does a lot to keep people safe as they visit the area.

“[Clear Creek Canyon] is easy access for all the people from the metro area who want to go hike, bike, rock climb, paraglide, hang-glide, whitewater rafting, kayaking, that sort of stu ,” he said. “ en a whole bunch of people who just go and recreate you know? ey go have picnics by the creek.” ese visitors get hurt and that’s when the Golden re department comes in.

“Our people are amazing,” he said. “ e swift water rescue technicians do really good work on swift water. We have people who do amazing work when a climber falls, or a climber has an accident. Or somebody just falls hiking, a get snakebite or with an injured mountain biker.”

Moorhead said that both paid and volunteer re ghters are trained and deployed in every rescue situation.

“ ere’s an interesting blend of things that Golden is responsible for,” he said. “Our volunteer reghters and our paid re ghters work together to address not just normal re suppression, vehicle accidents, medical calls, but then you have this whole technical rescue side. And it’s pretty neat. It’s truly a unique combination of things.” e directors of the documentary explained that choosing stories was very hard, but ultimately, they hoped what they chose t the story of re service in the best way possible.

Moorhead was called “the voice of the volunteer membership,” in the 2022 Golden Fire Department Year in Review. He has worked as a volunteer re ghter since he was 17, culminating for a total of 31 years.

“I was driving the engines at 17, 18. Who thought that was a good idea?” he said.

Moorhead has worked all across the country in a total of seven departments as a volunteer.

He said this is in addition to the regular duties of the re service.

“I think we really took a showdon’t-tell approach,” Matoso said. “So, we didn’t want just a bunch of talking heads, telling you about the volunteer re service. It was really more just diving into people’s stories, letting the visuals and the people tell the story, essentially.” e stories in the documentary follow recruits going through re training, and re ghters from departments that span both coasts of the U.S. ere are also stories about Emergency Medical Technicians.

One of them is Barbara, who went into her local re department to volunteer as a receptionist or clerk. Barbara tells the story of the captain handing her a book and telling her that they need an EMT instead. Barbara is well past middle age, but she explains in the lm that her age has helped, especially in her community where there is a large senior citizen population.

Some of the stories are about more than the re service. ey showcase the various other needs that these departments have. e directors also said this was something they wanted the audience to get from the lm.

“I think the people that see the lm might consider volunteering,” Matoso said. “ ese re departments need photographers. ey need cooks. ey need accountants and PR people. So there are lots of ways you can contribute to these re departments.” e lmmakers hope that people see the movie and volunteer. ey also want to strengthen the community spirit within some people who live in a community serviced by a volunteer re service.

Ultimately, the lm is designed to call attention to local volunteer re services.

“I think for everyone who looks into the re service and can step up in that way. It’s great,” Zohoori said. “ at’s the goal of the lm. But even for those who don’t, I hope that they still take away this bigger picture sense of how it is that communities across our country take care of themselves and take care of each other.” e documentary is an “impact lm,” meaning it is meant to not only tell a story but to also call the audience into action.

Je co lists 18 Fire Districts, many of which are a hybrid of volunteer and paid re ghters. e Golden Fire Department has 69 re ghters and two civilians. More than 50 of them are volunteers, including Moorhead. e volunteer membership has 12 o cers and 40 members listed in the department’s 2022 Year in Review.

Golden and other departments throughout Je erson County and in Colorado are in need of volunteers. e Golden Fire Department has information about training, duties and other information for volunteers.

“It’s always been an impact lm from the beginning,” said Matoso. “To raise awareness around volunteer re service.”

He went on to say that volunteering is so much more than people expect. e lm shows that as well.

“Volunteers, very little of what they do is actually ghting res. ey’re doing rescue and hazardous materials,” Matoso added.

“Like handling all kinds of other problem-solving services for their communities. So those were stories that we wanted to get out there.” e Je erson County list of re districts is available on the county re information webpage.

To stream “Odd Hours, No Pay, Cool Hat,” check out the lm’s website.

You can nd more about the Golden Fire Department on its website.

To get more information on the Foothills Fire & Rescue, check out the volunteer page.