Denver responded to 90 calls in 1 hour during Saturday’s flooding

DENVER ( KDVR ) — The Denver Fire Department responded to 90 calls for service in a single hour while heavy rain flooded the city and roadways, according to a post on social media.

The department said it typically averages 300 calls in total every day, but from just 9-10 p.m. on Saturday, it received 90 calls, with 15 to 20 of those being water rescues.

Most of those were for people trapped in their cars from the extreme flooding.

“Last night’s rain made a mess of Denver roadways,” the Denver Fire Department said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Turn around… Don’t drown!”

Several areas reported flash floods to the National Weather Service. This included areas in Arvada and Denver where there were reports of cars stranded in the water.

The NWS officially measured 0.47 inches of rainfall on Saturday from its station at the Denver International Airport. That was more rain in one day than Denver saw in the entire month of June this year when the city saw a total of 0.36 inches.

JD Chism, a Denver Fire Department captain and public information officer, told FOX31’s Alliyah Sims that this type of call volume is an anomaly. He said ordinarily, the agency sees 300 calls for service in a day. He also said that the water rescues were largely because of motorists driving into flooded intersections.

“When you’re having those kind of rescues, we can only track one call for that, so what happens when our crews are getting multiple rescues and our dispatch center is inundated with calls is it’s really hard to track exactly how many,” Chism explained. “So, when I even have to throw out a number like 15 -20 it could be as many as 25 because our companies are just going from one rig to the next to the next, just trying to help people that were trapped or stranded in their vehicles.”

Chism added that power poles and lines had fallen because of tree limbs, adding to the department’s call volume.

“Overall, that one-hour period of time just ended up being a really wild hour across Denver,” Chism told Sims. “It wasn’t just Denver Fire, Denver police were just as busy as well and anyone who was experiencing it first-hand could see why we were so busy.”

Chism said water levels typically need to be about two to three feet in depth before it enters the engine compartment, choking the engine and shutting off cars. He said many drivers were caught off guard.

“I do kind of think people were caught off guard. I don’t know how the day was where you were at, but it seemed like a beautiful day all day on Saturday,” Chism said. “So if you are sitting there looking at the rain tracker, perhaps you can see that rain coming in, but most of us were enjoying our Saturdays so when the rain blew in: Nobody was quite ready for how powerful that storm was.”

He said that drivers should never enter the water if the water depth is unknown.

“I know it’s an inconvenience. You look at that water and you look at the fact that you’re trying to get somewhere … But at the end of the day, it’s much better to go around and find another route than to cost yourself thousands of dollars in vehicle repairs and even worse, if you put yourself in a situation where you’re actually putting your life on the line,” Chism said. “So, it is really just that simple if were in that situation just turn around so you don’t put yourself to spend all that money or put your life on the line.”

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