By Phaedra Haywood
The Santa Fe New Mexican
SANTA FE, N.M. — Santa Fe County fire officials suspect a furnace or a boiler caused a Sept. 14 fire that destroyed the roof and most of the walls of a 3,500-square-foot home in Las Campanas.
Dave Sperling, deputy chief of the Santa Fe County Fire Department, said residents ofthe home on Primrose Circle called 911 at 11:35 p.m. and firefighters were on the scene 21 minutes later. The first fire engine arrived at the scene nine minutes later, he said, about 30 minutes after the initial call.
“My preference would be that the response time would be shorter, and I imagine the homeowner feels the same way,” Sperling said.
Sperling said response times in rural areas of the county are slower because most stations that serve such areas — such as the Agua Fra Fire Station serving Las Campanas — rely heavily on volunteer firefighters. Volunteers who receivecalls at home sometimes must get dressed, then go to the nearest station for equipment before responding to fires. He also said fires in rural areas tend to be far from stations and are often on dirt roads.
Sperling, said the response time “is not out of line with some of the other areas in the county,” but the county hopes to improve response times in the area within the next several months by manning the Agua Fra Station with paid firefighters.
The salaries for the paid firefighters will come from a quarter-percent gross receipts tax levy approved by Santa FeCounty voters last fall, which kicked in July 1. The station will be staffed sometime before the end of the year, Sperling said.
Sperling said there is a substation in the Las Campanas area, but it is not staffed and few “if any” residents from the Las Campanas area are volunteer firefighters.
Paid firefighters from the Santa Fe Fire Department, who were called in from their station at Fort Marcy Park to help battle the fire, arrived 21 minutes after being called.
Copyright 2007 The Santa Fe New Mexican
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News