Above: the Brush! Fire Department in Brush, Colorado. Photo by Bill Gabbert.

I have driven through the town of Brush, Colorado several times and each time I thought about the name of the fire department. I casually looked along Highway 71 as I passed through hoping the FD would be on the main north-south road, but didn’t see it.

A couple of weeks ago as I drove through the town on the way to Colorado Springs I decided to hunt down the fire department. It didn’t take long to spot the Brush! Volunteer Fire Department on the west side of town on Edison Street/Highway 34. And I finally got the photo I wanted. After leaving it occurred to me that I should have knocked on the door and asked about the exclamation point — “Brush!”.

I wonder how many other cities are named after a type of vegetation, and thus have a (vegetation) Fire Department like Brush? There’s Forest, Mississippi and the Forest Fire Department. Anyone know of others?