Fire departments across the Pikes Peak region are fielding a rising volume of "lift-assist" requests — calls from residents who have fallen or are unable to rise without help — and local officials say the trend is not slowing.
Responding to lift-assist requests is a routine part of fire department operations, and throughout the Pikes Peak region the service carries no charge to the caller, regardless of location. Calls arrive through the 911 emergency system or directly to a station and are treated as a standard community service, in the same category as fighting fires, freeing trapped individuals and providing first-responder medical care.
Lift assist ranks among the most frequent call types for the Colorado Springs Fire Department, according to department spokesperson Ashley Franco, who noted that responders encounter "a mixture of people falling in their homes, public places and aging facilities." Annual totals have moved steadily upward, from 2,673 calls in 2022 to 3,176 in 2025, and with 1,752 already recorded through the first few weeks of July 2026, this year could surpass all previous figures.
Nonmedical lift-assist calls accounted for roughly 4 percent of the 80,680 total emergency assistance requests the Colorado Springs Fire Department handled last year within city limits. Even at that share, the volume creates pressure on crews, especially when multiple requests originate from the same address. Callers — whether at a private residence or a licensed care facility such as a nursing center or assisted-living complex — receive no bill for the fire department's response.
Smaller district departments report a comparable picture. The Stratmoor Hills Fire Protection District, whose territory covers roughly 10,000 residents in unincorporated El Paso County and neighborhoods bordering southern Colorado Springs, treats lift assist as routine work, according to administrative chief Dottie Barrett. Barrett said the district regularly gets calls at one or two in the morning from senior residents who have fallen on the way to the bathroom and need help returning to bed. Between January 1 and July 31 of this year, her district answered 28 such calls; throughout all of 2025, it handled 63. The Security Fire Department does not separate lift-assist calls from its broader medical call category, since a request initially described as a simple fall can escalate once responders are on scene.
Rather than limit access to the service, Colorado Springs Fire Department is concentrating on reducing the circumstances that make calls necessary. Franco said the department's aim is "to focus on prevention versus stopping people from calling 911 altogether," while equipping residents with tools to avoid falls and reserve emergency calls for genuine crises. When a senior-living facility or in-home care provider accumulates an elevated number of nonmedical lift-assist calls, the fire department sends a risk-reduction team to work with facility leadership on pinpointing contributing factors and workable solutions, according to community risk-reduction specialist Kalee Nappo. The team examines call patterns, staff procedures and emergency protocols, then tailors education and training around fall prevention, safe movement and lifting techniques, emergency decision-making and appropriate use of 911. Nappo said limiting avoidable responses preserves crew capacity for fires, medical emergencies and other time-critical incidents citywide.
Community organizations are working alongside fire departments on the prevention front. Silver Key Senior Services offers fall-related workshops, fitness programming designed to strengthen bones and sharpen balance, and transportation assistance to destinations such as grocery stores and medical appointments. The nonprofit, which works to help older adults remain in their own homes, also provides in-home safety modifications, meal delivery, companionship visits and case management. Without education on fall prevention, people may not know how to get up safely after a slip; adults 65 and older face a heightened risk of hip fracture from a fall, an injury that frequently leads to an emergency department visit and possible hospitalization.
Some jurisdictions outside Colorado have pursued a different approach. After its call volume topped 1,000 in 2024, the Decatur, Ill., fire department launched a one-year trial charging $500 per nonmedical lift-assist call originating from care facilities, a figure the department said was derived by calculating the average time and resources each such response consumed. Decatur reported a 60 percent drop in facility-generated calls over a two-year comparison period and collected $13,500 in fees, leading the city to make the charge permanent last year; calls from private homes and medically necessary responses remained exempt. No Pikes Peak area department has announced a comparable fee structure.
Whether Colorado Springs Fire Department's 2026 call total will set a new record, and whether prevention efforts will begin to bend that trend line, remains to be seen.