By Matt Robinson
The Deming Headlight
COLUMBUS, N.M. — You could say it was like that feeling kids get on Christmas morning, but instead of socks or a BB gun, the present was a life-saving tool.
The village of Columbus Fire Department’s fleet now has an additional “Class A” pumper, bringing the total number of those vehicles to two.
“The whole department is ecstatic about having a new pumper and the additional pumper available,” Chief Bob Wright said. “Everybody’s come over and touched it and hugged it.”
Classification “A” means the pumper can handle most structure fires. He said it’s what the department would use if a home caught on fire, as opposed to taking on a brush fire in the desert.
“Technically, with only one pumper, that pumper is assigned to protect the village of Columbus, so I’m really not supposed to take that thing outside of the village,” He said. “If we have a car fire five, 10 miles out, we’re not supposed to take that one pumper out. Now, with the two pumpers, I can do that and not have to worry in the back of my mind, ‘God, I hope we don’t have a fire in town while I’m out putting this car fire out.’”
He says the new addition allows his department to cover the approximately 888 square for which it is responsible “without questioning” the chances of fire response to another situation.
The new pumper operates at about 1,250 gallons of water per minute, he said and it comes equipped with a 1,000-gallon tank to haul water to remote sites.
According to a press release from the department, it now has two class-A pumpers, two brush trucks, a 4,000-gallon water truck, two ambulances and three administration/first response vehicles for a total of 10 vehicles in its fleet.
The department is staffed with over 20 trained volunteer firefighters and 10 emergency medical technicians. He sees the staffing and equipment additions as further signs of progress in an ever-developing department.
“Our training has come a long way in the last couple years,” he said. “Four years ago, we were down to one EMT; now we’ve got 10.”
The truck was paid for with approximately $200,000 in grant money from the New Mexico Fire Fund and the United States Department of Agriculture.
The department answers over 650 emergency medical calls and over 100 fire related call a year.
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