By Julie Medina
Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico)
Copyright 2006 Albuquerque Journal
Rio Rancho fire chief Jeff Anderson is packing up the fire gear and taking out the camping gear.
Anderson retired from the Department of Public Safety on Friday after 20 years of service. His colleagues honored him with a retirement barbecue.
Now he plans on helping his wife with their business doing high-resolution graphics and spending time with his two kids — including an upcoming camping trip with his son.
“You don’t always get a lot of opportunity to (go camping) when you are in the fire department because other people’s emergencies come first,” Anderson said.
When he was younger, he helped neighbors with anything he could, he said.
He learned from plumbers and electricians as he helped with everything they would allow, he said.
“That really, truly paid off throughout my career,” he said.
People call the fire department with the strangest questions, he said, and his experiences helped him know the answers.
For example, he said, if you smell, but don’t see, smoke in a house, check the dishwasher. Typically, it is simply a matter of a plate falling against the heating element and melting.
“It’s the little things you try to pass on to guys coming up behind you,” he said.
Anderson has had plenty of opportunity to share his knowledge with newer members of the department.
He worked as a full-time firefighter in Iowa before moving to Rio Rancho in 1986.
He began his Rio Rancho firefighting career as a volunteer and was one of the first four full-time firefighters hired by the city in 1987, he said.
When he began with Rio Rancho, there were about 24,000 people living in the city and only two stations, he said. Now there are about 82,000 people, five stations and 73 paid positions in the fire department, he said. Before 1987, firefighters in Rio Rancho were cross-trained as police officers and EMTs, he said. At one time, he said, he was certified as a law enforcement officer. “That’s the darker side of my career,” he said, jokingly. “We always tell the police that if they’d scored one more higher on the exam, they could have been firefighters as well.” Anderson has been replaced as fire chief by James Tobin from Florida.