Brazos Canyon Volunteer Fire Department, Chama, NM

February 2010 Newsletter

February’s training will be held on Saturday, February 20 th, at 8:00, at the station. This month’s training will be the annual inspection of our PPE. Please bring both your structural and wildland PPE to the training.

We’ll also be completing our elections. In consultation with Assistant Chief Paul Schultz, I have appointed a slate of the remaining officers. That slate of officers will be sent out to the Department. Only Active Duty members in good standing are eligible for office. The Department will vote on the remaining officers as a slate but, if there are any votes against the slate of officers by the Active Duty members in good standing, then the officers will be individually approved or disapproved.

During-the-week training will be offered on Tuesday, February 16 th, at 6:00 at the station.

February’s Leadership Team meeting will be held on Saturday, January 16 th, at 1:00 at the Station. The Leadership Team needs to attend. The meeting is open to anyone else that would like to attend.

We received the RFA grant, after all. I received a notice from the Bureau of Land Management that we had been awarded $16,100 for the Rural Fire Assistance (RFA) grant that we applied for. We will use the grant to procure the new generation fire shelters that we are now required to carry and additional wildland PPE.

We also received a $6,435 donation. Chris Mason, President of Fairway, Inc. donated all of the doors, frames and hardware for the new station. Because Blue Sky Builders had won the bid, including the doors, we had to wait until the contract was paid to receive the cost of the doors. Paul Schultz picked-up the check from Blue Sky and it’s now in our Community Funds. Please thank the Mason’s for their very generous donation, when you see them.

Work continues on the new station. At January’s meeting, the Leadership Team selected Johnny Otero for the construction of the over-the-office storage area and the stairs and landing. Johnny will be starting on the stairs and landing, this month. There’s a white board in the meeting room to keep a list of things that need to be purchased or done. Feel free to add to the list and feel free to do stuff on the list, too.

Snow is being removed. Paul Schultz has been removing snow from around the Station and the Temporary Bays. Please thank him, when you see him.

The Brush Truck is still out of service. The booster hoses have arrived and Mike Praiswater delivered the hoses and the hose reels to the Canyon. Once we finish the work on the Initial Attack truck, we will install and reattach everything.

Work on the Initial Attack truck is close to being finished. Under Paul Schultz’ leadership, all of the equipment has been installed on the Initial Attack truck. The lower plumbing for the Initial Attack truck has been completed and Paul will be picking it up and installing it. Once that installation is complete, we’ll get the upper plumbing, get it installed and then the Initial Attack truck will be complete and at a significant savings against the quotes we received for the vendors to build the truck.

The Department had one call in January. Paul Schultz and Kevin Chafins responded to a page requesting that we provide assistance to TA Med. A guest at Corkins was very ill and the TA Med folks were concerned that they could not reach him with their ambulance. Paul and Kevin used the Department’s gurney and Paul’s truck to get the patient to the waiting ambulance.

There are lots of Department birthdays that we need to celebrate. Paul Cordova and Mike Praiswater had birthdays in January. Mike Cousin’s has a birthday in February. And, Al Marino, Sondra Kinsey, Matt Berry, John Holtry and Dale Cowder have birthdays in March, prior to our March meeting. Please wish them a happy birthday.

Fire and Rescue Association (“Fire Chiefs”) meeting. The Association wants to update the Bylaws and also generate a set of Standard Operating Guidelines (SOGs) for the County’s fire departments. I was asked to lead the Bylaws team and Catherine Praiswater is on the SOGs team and will be working with me on the Bylaws team. Jerome Sanchez has been working on a contract to have a certified tester use the mobile pump testing unit to travel within the County to test apparatus pumps. The contract should be in-place within the next few weeks. We will take advantage of this service, when it’s available. A team was also tasked with putting together the Second Annual Firefighters Day. Tentative dates are May 5 th or May 12 th.

Designed and Maintained