FRISCO, Colo. Fire inspectors in Summit County noticed that there appeared to be a service gap businesses werent getting their fire extinguishers serviced.The inspectors learned that instead of servicing their current extinguishers, many would buy new ones every year and hold on to the old ones. Summit Fire & EMS decided to create a new job to close the gap and help responsibly recycle old extinguishers. Meghan Layfield, a fire inspector for Summit Fire & EMS, started the program in Sept. 2024 after noticing the issue.A common corrective action was that fire extinguishers had not been serviced within the past 12 months, which is a requirement per our fire code, she said. All fire extinguisher service technicians are either commuting from the Front Range or the Western Slope, so there's an expensive service charge just to schedule and then there are fees to actually service the technicians.Summit Fire & EMS didnt have to look far to find the perfect candidate for the fire extinguisher specialist role. Jessy Dorton has had a passion for fire extinguishers since elementary school and has been interacting with first responders and fire officials for years.Word got around to Layfield, and she knew that she had to offer Dorton the job. Since then, its been a great experience.He's super passionate, super knowledgeable and has such a good attitude, said Layfield. Every time that I get to work with Jessy, Im in a better mood. He just takes feedback so well. Hes fun to work with. I just cant state enough how passionate he is about fire extinguishers. Dorton told Denver7 he's enjoyed interacting with everyone at the fire department.I love it when they help me on certain stuff, and they've been doing a good job at that, helping me out and training me on everything, he said. Its really amazing. I just love what I do, and everyone knows I do a good job with everything.Dorton's job is to clear out old fire extinguisher canisters, disassemble them and then take them to Summit County Resource Allocation Park for recycling. The department is also working on training Dorton to become a fire extinguisher service technician so that people living in Summit County will have a local who can service fire extinguishers.If you have any old, discarded, or abandoned fire extinguishers, you can drop them off at Summit Fire & EMS. Feel free to leave them at the front door if it is outside their normal office hours. You do not need to be a Summit County resident to drop off your old extinguishers.