By Sean Olson
Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico)
Copyright 2006 Albuquerque Journal
Marcelino Martinez has been around fire most of his life. Earlier this year, it got too close.
Martinez, a 23-year-old, second-generation firefighter from Las Vegas, N.M., was battling a grass fire for the Bernalillo County Fire Department in Edgewood on June 15 when wind-driven flames engulfed his face.
Martinez was rushed to the hospital, where he was treated for 4 hours for second- and third-degree burns to his face, ears and elbows.
The pain was manageable with the help of morphine, but he said the firefighters that accompanied him were grimacing from the procedures.
“I was like, ‘God, they’re not helping,’” Martinez said. “It was pretty painful.”
Bernalillo County Fire Chief Bett Clark said Martinez was wearing all the proper fire gear and battling the fire under erratic wind conditions.
“This is the worst (accident) we’ve had, and I hope it’s the last one we have,” she said.
Martinez is no stranger to the fire business. He began volunteering for the San Miguel County volunteer force in his hometown of Las Vegas, N.M., at 14 years old and worked for Las Vegas city fire department for four years before joining BCFD about 9 months ago, he said.
Martinez said he had seen accidents happen during fires, but never anything this severe — and he never thought it would happen to him.
“It’s always in the back of your mind,” he said. “But you’re always like, eh, it won’t happen to you.”
The aftermath has been difficult. Martinez spent the first two weeks in bed, heavily medicated for the pain.
He still can’t leave his apartment, and he won’t be able to go out in the sun without a hat and loads of sunscreen for at least a year.
“So, I’m mostly a night person now,” he said.
For the first two weeks, Martinez had to scrub his face with cold water and mild soap twice a day, an experience he said was incredibly unpleasant.
“My skin would be crying,” he said.
Bandages on his elbows, wrist and fingers had to be changed twice a day. An ointment allowed him to avoid bandaging his face.
Martinez said he may have some slight scarring where he received the worst damage, such as on his ears and elbows.
Burns are measured by how much damage they do to tissue, with third-degree burns damaging the skin all the way down to muscle and second-degree burns reaching down to the second level of skin tissue. Firstdegree burns are tantamount to a sunburn.
The hardest thing, Martinez said, is dealing with whiskers. He used to shave up to twice a day to keep a clean-shaven mug, but the burns have made it impossible.
“That’s my biggest problem right now,” he said.
Mark McConnell, a fellow BCFD fireman, said the accident made other firefighters think about the dangers of what they see as a regular job.
“To see we can get hurt, it really makes you stop and look,” he said. McConnell and other friends, family members and co-workers have been calling and stopping by every day to help. "(I) don’t cook, (I) don’t wash dishes, it’s like, cool,” he said. “But I’d rather be at work.” Martinez said he hopes when people hear about his accident they remember that firefighters risk their lives every day. “Don’t take us for granted,” he said.