By Laurie Clark
The Mountain View Telegraph via The Albuquerque Journal
ESTANCIA, N.M. — There has been a shake up in the Estancia Volunteer Fire Department.
Bruce Dile, captain of fire and EMS for the department, has resigned after 18 years, citing ongoing problems with Fire Chief Wayne Granger.
Dile claims that Granger “goes after a certain person, and he makes it hard on them ... he’ll find little ways to write them up,” which has resulted in losing many staff members over the years.
“I am tired of seeing people leaving for things that are very minor,” Dile says.
Dile also says that Granger does not want to send his staff to training.
“I don’t think he wants us to get better ... we have all these people who want to learn but he doesn’t want to send them places,” Dile says. Another issue Dile has with Granger is the lack of basic medications on the trucks, which Dile says could be easily obtained if Granger would only start the process to get the department licensed to carry the drugs.
“If you have a truck that needs to carry it, let the guys do their job. They’re trained for it,” Dile says.
According to Dile, the last straw was when Granger kicked Dile’s son Kalef, also a member of the fire department, out of an EMT class.
Dile says that he, as the captain, told the EMT instructor Kalef could not attend the class one day. According to Dile, the instructor was fine with that, but Granger was not - he pulled Kalef out of the class completely.
That is when both Dile and his son quit the Estancia Fire Department and moved to the Moriarty Fire Department.
Dile also places some of the blame on Estancia Mayor Ted Barela, saying that there has been a lack of support from both Barela and the Board of Trustees.
Barela said that he takes the allegations seriously, but that there are two sides to the story.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Chief Granger has done everything perfect, because he hasn’t,” Barela said, “however, not everybody is as clean as they appear, either.”
Dile said he is tired of setting up meetings between Granger, the mayor and himself, because “it seems like every time there is a meeting, nothing gets done.”
Barela says that “every time we set up a meeting ... one or the other party doesn’t show up.”
Barela also counters that no one came to him to complain in the proper manner.
“Nobody’s willing to step to the plate. Nobody’s willing to put anything in writing. You can’t just tell me and expect me to jump - you guys know intimately what’s going on ... put it on the table for what it is, and that’s the only way I can deal with it. But nobody’s willing to step to the plate and put it on the table,” he said.
“I know that there’s some people that have a passion for (being in the fire department), and I think that we need to optimize on that,” Barela said. “There’s nothing that bothers me more than to lose somebody with experience. Bruce is an asset to us ... but unless somebody is willing to put it on paper and tell me ‘this is what’s going on in this department.’ I don’t work there everyday - and I can’t walk in and just make assumptions, because then that can destroy a department, too.”
Granger said Wednesday he could not comment about the situation.
Copyright 2011 Albuquerque Journal