By Jeremy Pawloski
Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico)
Copyright 2006 Albuquerque Journal
On Monday evening, Dennis Dauber’s wet and smoky Cerro Gordo home told a story of potential disaster averted by the actions of Santa Fe firefighters.
Nearly every window in the home was cracked or broken by the heat of the one-acre brush fire that swept eastward through the east side neighborhood shortly after 1 p.m. Monday.
Flames licked and blackened the beams of Dauber’s secondstory deck.
A hot tub was gone, completely consumed by the blaze.
Inside the home, leaves of large house plants near broken windows were drooped and withered. The outer edge of a carpet was soaked.
The quick response of the Santa Fe Fire Department around 1:15 p.m. saved the home from certain destruction, Dennis Dauber’s father, Moe, a retired Albuquerque firefighter, said Monday.
“They saved the house,” Moe Dauber said. “A fire of this dimension, you would swear that you would lose the house and the next block, you know.”
Santa Fe Fire Department Battalion Chief Charlie Velarde said the blaze was suspicious, “definitely” a human-started fire that spread quickly due to high winds.
“It is not an accidental fire,” he said. “It is suspicious, yes.”
The fire is under investigation, and it was unclear Monday evening what started it, Velarde added.
He said three residents of Cerro Gordo were treated at the hospital Monday for smoke inhalation after trying to help firefighters with the blaze. They are not believed to have been badly hurt, Velarde said.
A car also burned in the fire.
Kate Dauber, who was on the scene surveying the damage with her fatherin-law, Moe, on Monday evening, said she was particularly impressed with the thoughtfulness of one of the responding firefighters, Fire Capt. Jimmy Trujillo.
She said Capt. Trujillo made sure he moved her 14-year-old daughter Mara’s personal belongings away from the window of her first-floor bedroom as water rained down through from a hose that was spraying the roof.
“The fire department was unbelievable in their response and in their compassion,” Kate Dauber said.
Mara’s rescued belongings included a pencil drawing of her dog Neeko, which had died prior to Monday’s fire.
“Property conservation is what we do,” Velarde said when informed of Capt. Trujillo’s actions.
No one was inside Dennis Dauber’s home in the 1200 block of Cerro Gordo at the time of the fire. Moe Dauber said his son was on vacation in Berkeley, Calif.
Neighbors banded together with garden hoses to help put out the blaze and protect their nearby homes, some of which have been on Cerro Gordo for generations, said Jane Garcia, who has lived in the same Cerro Gordo house her entire life.
“You should have seen us with the neighbors, all the hoses,” Garcia said.
The fire consumed dry trees, coyote fences and wooden staircases all around Dauber’s home and adjoining properties.
Santa Fe firefighter Jason Herrera confirmed the Daubers’ statements that the blaze would have easily destroyed the Dauber home. Fire conditions in the City Different are terrible and dangerous with the ongoing drought.
“Any time you have wind and dry weather, that’s a bad combination,” Herrera said.
Moe Dauber said he was impressed that Velarde called for water trucks “right away.”
Velarde confirmed that firefighting equipment was quickly dispatched on scene.
“You might call it overkill, but we respond with two engines, and with brush trucks.”
Velarde said Santa Fe firefighters have been undergoing wildland fire training every year in preparation for big, drought-enabled fires.
During Monday’s fire, volunteer units from Santa Fe County, including Hondo, Tesuque and Agua Fria, assisted, Velarde said. State Forestry Division firefighters also helped out, Velarde said.