THOREAU
FIRE and RESCUE #1
The Thoreau Fire District is a volunteer department and the Support Services Office is providing career personnel from Thoreau Ambulance to complement fire and rescue response since most of the members work in either Gallup or Grants (30 miles either way).
Thoreau provides fire suppression, heavy rescue/EMS first responder along with EMS ambulance services. Thoreau is populated by about 5100 persons and has an out laying populous of about another 2200 persons in the surrounding reservation areas. Highway I-40 runs alongside Thoreau and thusly we have a traveling population also of an estimated 37,000 persons per any day on average (taken from the state of NM highway department).
14 miles South of Thoreau is Bluewater Lake, which is a popular fishing
and recreation area (I am not sure as to how many acres or miles square the
lake is, but it is usually fairly large dependent on drought conditions).
Beyond Bluewater Lake is the McGaffey and Zuni wilderness, which is a popular,
hunting area (however I have not ever seen any game during hunting season, only
off season).
The community of Thoreau (pronounced Thor-eu) is not be named after the famous writer, or after a train station operator who ran the train station in the mid 1800's, in fact no one know how it got it's name. Everyone I have talked to seems to have a different perspective. Thoreau was initially a train station and gambling town and it is strongly reputed that Billy the Kid was seen here after his supposed death.
The Thoreau Fire District was the first established Fire District in
McKinley County, and was officially established 44 years ago on March 20, 1962,
however archives have reveled documents of organization as early as 1958.
The official establishment was with the efforts of James Kaufman, Tommy
Batson, Ferril Lewis, Ed Malone and Jim Radosevich. Before this district was
established, Gallup Fire Department (established 1896) would respond to the
area at a distance of 30+ miles. As you might guess, many fires were out, and
many emergencies weren't by then. The archives show that the first chief was
Mr. Jim Radosevich who remained in office for 3 years. After Mr. Radosevich, I
am not sure who became chief until Mr. Jack Ledingham but the assistant chief
was Mr. Edward Malone who held this position since 1963 until 1995. In
1995 both Mr. Malone and Mr. Ledingham retired. When Thoreau became a fire
district, it was the only one in the east county and responded to well over
4800 square miles, now our primary response area is about 1200 square miles however
we are often called well beyond our primary area. Thoreau started with a donation of a 1935 GMC Pumper from the City
of Gallup arranged by Mr. George Busick from Thunderbird Fire Company on October
2, 1961. In 1969, Thoreau took
delivery of it's first new pumper, a 1969 Ford C-700 Series chassis with a 1000
gallon tank, 500 GMP Champion Darley Pump and a 3rd stage high pressure booster
pump and was built by Clark Fire Equipment in Albuquerque. In 1974 Thoreau received its first rescue
truck, the box still survives on what we affectionately call beast.
In early 1980 the citizens of Thoreau and the Thoreau Fire Department decided
that an ambulance was needed, they established Thoreau Ambulance Service as a separate
private entity and took delivery of one ambulance and started to grow. The nearest ambulance service was 30 miles in
any direction, and after one of the ambulance services showed up with a load of
plywood in of it's ambulances, and the attendants refused to off load the wood in
order to load and attend the patient appropriately, the people of Thoreau were
outraged and 16 members of the Fire Department immediately became EMT-A's (now
EMT-Basics) to work on a new private ambulance. On May 26, 1980 Thoreau Ambulance Service received it's temporary
motor carrier permit which became permanent in September of the same year due to
the efforts of Clyde Hockett, Tom and Vikki Fanning, Cheryl Spinks, Jack
Ledingham and probably many other dedicated residents whom I don't know and
have not listed (if anyone has more information please e-mail me). More
people became EMT’s and volunteered their time to the Ambulance Service.
To increase effectiveness and maintain order, In November 1980, Thoreau Fire
Department purchased Thoreau Ambulance Service for $1.00 and the ambulance service
became part of the Fire Department. In 1981, half to three quarters of the existing
EMT Basics, now numbering 20, became EMT Intermediates.
Also in 1981, Thoreau saw the purchase of a E-One class "A" pumper, conventional chassis, and in 1984 Thoreau bought a Kenworth chassis, 3500 gallon tanker with 800 GPM hydraulic driven pump from Omega. In 1985 Thoreau was named New Mexico's Fire District of the Year by the State Fire Marshal's Office. In 1988 Thoreau received it's ISO class 6 rating which was far better (and more profitable) than it's previous ISO class 9.
At some point from 1980 to 1986, Thoreau Ambulance/FD hired career personnel to attend to administrative and daytime EMS and Fire responses who were paid from the collections for services. In 1988 McKinley County reverted these persons to a county position as career EMT/Firefighters. During 1990 an incident occurred in where one employee was released and the other was transferred to Loss Control and the ambulance service was effectively “shut down”. McKinley County being pressured by citizens had Gallup Emergency Medical Service (GEMS) supply an ambulance and personnel in 1990-1991 based out of the Fire Station. This lasted until GEMS pulled out deciding that it was not cost effective. The Fire Department still had the 2 ambulances so it was decided that in the case of extreme life threatening emergencies they would intercept GEMS or other services. Well a child, died because no one responded, and the County was forced to review it’s position and reestablished Thoreau EMS/FD under volunteer control and supervision with a augmented career staff in July 1992 and hired 3 personnel, Ken Hoffman, Brian Mansfield and David Martin.
In 1995, Thoreau and McKinley County sold the 1969 pumper to Candy Kitchen fire district in Cibola County and it is still in use. The 1981 pumper was wrecked after a tree stump was run over and the driver ripped the pump from the chassis, bent frame rails, bent an axle amongst other damage but was repaired and still sees service to date.
In 1995, Thoreau purchased a Becker International 6 man cab chassis,
class A pumper with a 1250 GPM Waterous pump, 1000 gallon tank on an emergency
basis, and a 3 ton Top Kick chassis 6 person cab rescue known as big foot or
aforementioned BEAST (and
put the old box on it to save money), two new McCoy Miller mini-mod ambulances.
Thoreau F.D. also gave Gallup Fire Dept. the 1935 GMC and they are currently
restoring it back to show condition. That was a busy year with a lot of
change.
The 1981 truck was eventually fixed and was transferred to Fort Wingate V.F.D. Later FWVFD received a new pumper and the 1981 pumper and is now the county backup pumper.
On September 30th, 1996 Thoreau F.D. received its new rescue, a Becker
Fast-Tak. It is fully loaded with all of the trimmings. The previous
rescue (big foot) was transferred to Pinedale F.D. who used the truck, as it's
first response unit for 5 years.
In June 1998 the
Ambulance and Fire/Rescue administrations were split by McKinley County
and the current Fire Director, Tom Trujillo, so that fire department and ambulance
services have different administrations with the fire department remaining
volunteer and the Ambulance Service becoming career administered with contract membership who receive a stipend for their standby/response time. In January 1999, the Ambulance service moved
west, down the block into what was the Western New Mexico Medical Group
Building. Several volunteer Firefighters/EMT’s
still contract with Thoreau Ambulance and all career personnel for Thoreau
Ambulance are career firefighters for McKinley County Fire Department. Career Personnel utilize Thoreau VFD’s equipment for firefighting
duties however volunteer personnel and department appointed command persons and still
maintain command of fire/rescue scenes.
In the summer of 2000, AJ Durante refitted the tankers pump with a new
800 GMP hydraulic driven pump after the old pump died a slow and hideous growling
death. The Tanker still is in great
condition and with less the 25K mile on it, it is not even broken in yet.
In December 2001, Big Foot came back to Thoreau and then was reassigned to
the Fire Administration Fleet shop in early 2008 when Thoreau took delivery of a
new American La France Brush truck with 300 gal of water storage, foam injection
system and various other features including a 4 door cab.
One of Thoreau EMS's Ambulances is stationed at the Fire Department; the
equipment belongs to Thoreau EMS but due to storage problems, proximity and
access, and because Thoreau VFD and the career personnel work closely this
storage works well. Furthermore, the VFD operates the ambulance in times
when more then one ambulance is necessary.
The Current Administration:
- Fire and Rescue Chief, Andres Campos, EMT-I, Firefighter I
- Asst. Chief, Emerson Thomas
To Contact us:
Thoreau Fire and Rescue
P.O. Box 1115
Thoreau, NM 87323
(505) 862-7770
McKinley County EMS/Ambulance
P.O. Box 1115
Thoreau, NM 87323
(505) 862-7770