AURORA | Aurora Fire Rescue officials say a pilot program that leaves opioid overdose-reversal medication with patients and their families has proved to be a life-saving intervention as well as a critical bridge to treatment for people struggling with addiction.
“This is really about harm reduction,” Aurora Fire Rescue Lt. Jack Thompson told members of the Aurora City Council Public Safety committee last week. “It doesn’t necessarily take care of the underlying cause, but it reduces the harm so that we can get help there.”
Narcan, also known as naloxone, is a fast-acting medication that stops and reverses the lethal effects of opioid overdoses by restoring breathing.
Thompson said the department’s “leave-behind” Narcan initiative equips firefighters and paramedics to provide the overdose-reversing drug directly to patients or bystanders after a 911 call and then leave an additional dose behind with instructions how to use it.
“This is going to prevent them from dying,” Thompson said. “If they die, they can never recover.”
The program was launched last year with 950 Narcan kits supplied through a state grant.
Officials said the program’s link to harm reduction is based on a public health approach that prioritizes keeping people alive long enough to seek help, even if it does not immediately address addiction itself.
Aurora reported 324 opioid overdoses in 2025, with 51 resulting in cardiac arrest and 28 people being pronounced dead on the scene, according to fire department data.
Under the program, firefighters respond to an overdose, administer Narcan, and, even if the patient refuses transport to a hospital, which Thompson said is common, rescuers leave behind a kit that can be used in a future emergency. The kits can be used by roommates, family members or others nearby.
Thompson described a typical scenario from several months ago. A patient was revived from an overdose but declined hospital care. Firefighters left behind a dose of Narcan and told a roommate how to use it. Just hours later, the person overdosed again on opioids. The roommate administered the drug, and the persoin survived a second time.
Officials said similar programs nationwide suggest overdose deaths could be significantly reduced with wider access to the drug.
Aurora Fire and Rescue medical director Dr. Eric Hill, said naloxone is safe, has no ill-effect if opioids are not present, and is increasingly available without a prescription.
After the drug is used and another dose left behind, Thompson follows up with the patient, offering resources for addiction treatment and other mental health options.
Officials said the personal outreach is essential to turning a moment of crisis into an opportunity for recovery.
“We’re not writing them off,” Thompson said. “We’re following up with them … trying to help them get more help that they need.”
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said he stipulates that the drug saves lives, but he said he opposed efforts to make it more widespread and available in parts of the city where opioid overdose rates are highest.
“We’ve had nonprofit groups reach out to us and say, ‘we’d like to use old newspaper racks to put Narcan in the areas where there’s the highest overdose,’” Chamberlain said. “I pushed back on that because, again, it’s an enabler.”
He said making Narcan readily available encourages people to use opioids more frequently and without trepidation because the Narcan is like a “parachute” for addicts and drug users.
Fire and medical officials acknowledged the debate but stressed the urgency of saving lives.
“If they die, they can’t recover,” Hill said. “This step allows them to survive that overdose so that we can intervene.”
Opioid overdose deaths fell across the nation last year, suggesting an improvement in an epidemic that had been worsening for decades.
Colorado bucked that trend, according to state and federal health officials, with deaths remaining steady or even slightly increasing in some places, including Denver.
Federal data released earlier this year showed that overdose deaths have been falling for more than two years — the longest drop in decades — but also that the decline was slowing.
Overdose deaths began steadily climbing in the 1990s with overdoses involving opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths from heroin and — more recently — illicit fentanyl. Deaths peaked nearly 110,000 in 2022, fell a little in 2023 and then plummeted 27% in 2024, to around 80,000. That was the largest one-year decline ever recorded.
Researchers cannot yet say with confidence why deaths have gone down in some parts of the country. Experts have offered multiple possible explanations: increased availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, expanded addiction treatment, shifts in how people use drugs, and the growing impact of billions of dollars in opioid lawsuit settlement money.
Some also point to research that suggests the number of people likely to overdose has been shrinking, as fewer teens take up drugs and many illicit drug users have died.
The Leave Behind initiative is part of Aurora Fire Rescue’s broader community health strategy, which aims to reduce repeat 911 calls by addressing underlying medical and social needs.
For opioid users, officials say the philosophy is simply to provide the tools to survive today so there is a chance to seek treatment tomorrow.
“This is about keeping people alive,” Thompson said. “That’s the first step to recovery.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Co$t of the Narcan® “kit”?
Looking to buy one?
Yes. I may discover someone who needs it.
Years ago I used my glovebox rescue breathing mask on a ~70-year-old man who stopped breathing.
Nicely done!