By Katie Langford
The Denver Post
ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — It only took one pill for Adams County Fire Rescue Lt. Ben Ramos to lose his brother, Anthony, forever.
Ramos’ brother died in September 2019 at 33 after a friend unknowingly gave him a pill that was 100% fentanyl. Firefighters and paramedics who administered CPR and naloxone at the scene could not save him.
Ramos’ story partly inspired the fire district to wrap one of its fire trucks with fentanyl awareness and education messaging for the next six months, Fire Chief Troy Patterson said.
It’s believed to be the first and only fire engine in the country that’s wrapped with fentanyl messaging, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“The unfortunate reality is that fentanyl is everywhere,” Ramos said Friday, standing in front of the newly unveiled truck at Station 11 in Twin Lakes. “It’s in schools, in the general public, at parties.”
Fentanyl poisoning is the leading cause of death among Americans 18 to 45 years old, and half of all pills seized by the DEA contain a lethal dose, said Jonathan Pullen, the special agent in charge for the Rocky Mountain Field Division.
The agency seized a record high of nearly 3 million fentanyl pills in Colorado this year, Pullen said.
The DEA’s Rocky Mountain division also has vehicles wrapped with fentanyl messaging, but nothing on the scale of a fire engine, Pullen said.
“This is an incredible way to get this message out to a large percentage of the population that needs to hear it,” he said.
Ramos, Patterson and Pullen all urged community members to talk with their friends, children and loved ones about the danger of fentanyl.
“If (pills) are not prescribed to you or not given to you by a doctor, please do not take them,” Ramos said. “You are gambling with your life.”
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