State employees in Colorado will now be able to receive paid administrative leave to respond to a fire as a volunteer firefighter or first responder. Gov. Jared Polis signed the executive order authorizing all state agencies and departments to provide up to five days of additional paid leave for these state employees on Wednesday morning. The decision came after Polis recently met with fire officials in Eads and volunteer firefighters in Rico and other parts of the state to talk about their needs. Some discussion surrounded equipment and fire stations, but one problem Russ Watson with the Kiowa County Fire Protection District and others brought up was the amount of state employees they have living in their areas who are or want to be volunteer firefighters having a hard time volunteering because of the unpaid time off from their day jobs.