By Christine Steele
The Silver City Sun-News
WIND CANYON, N.M. — The Tyrone Fire Department got its new water tender last week, just in time for its new station to open. The Wind Canyon Station also just received its permit of occupancy last week.
Construction on the station began in the summer of 2008, shortly after the department formed the sub-unit of Wind Canyon to protect the 300-plus homes in the area, including those on Truck Bypass Road, where the station is located, and homes in nearby Mangus and out to Saddle Rock Road, said Roger Dombrowski with the department.
The building is complete and the permit of occupancy issued, but it will be another week or so before the department can start using it since there is a short punch list of items that need to be completed, said Ellen Harris, fire chief of the Tyrone Department.
“We don’t want to be in the contractor’s way and once we occupy the building we can’t have anyone in it unless they are a fire department member,” she said.
With the new station comes new equipment and more firefighters.
The new water tender, delivered by Artesia Fire Equipment last week to the Wind Canyon Station brings the pieces of equipment at the new station to three — a brush truck, an engine and the new tender, the only new piece of equipment. The engine was a surplus engine from Hurley, the brush truck was formerly a rotating city vehicle and the tender was purchased new, at a cost of $161,000, from Artesia Fire Equipment.
“It’s a significant increase in the fire protection resources for Grant County,” Dombroski said of the new station, additional equipment and volunteer firefighters. The Tyrone Fire Department is one of the largest in the state, Harris said, with five stations and 90 volunteers. The department covers 1,100 square miles — from Hachita to Cliff. The stations are located at the Tyrone Town Site, White Signal, Cliff (the Flying A station), Hachita and now Wind Canyon, on the Truck Bypass Road that connects Highway 180 coming from Cliff and with Highway 90 in Tyrone.
The Wind Canyon qualifies as a main station, Dombroski said, not a substation, which means more firefighters — 19 will staff the new station on an on-call basis, 12 are required as per the state fire marshal — and more funding for the department from the state’s fire fund.
The department is always looking for new members, Harris said, from volunteer firefighters, to auxiliary members, general members, and right now, is in dire need of an accountant, she said.
For information on how to become a member of the Tyrone Volunteer Fire Department, contact Ellen Harris at (575) 313-9762.
For more information on Artesia Fire Equipment, visit the company’s official website.
Copyright 2011 Silver City Sun-News, a MediaNews Group Newspaper
All Rights Reserved