By Ahsley Meeks
El Paso Times
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Four volunteer firefighters were arrested Tuesday on charges of allegedly setting fire to hundreds of hay bales at a Mesquite, N.M., dairy farm on Monday night.
Doca Ana Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Kelly Jameson said Tuesday that four men allegedly set the fire at the Mountain View Dairy because “they were bored,” according to a criminal complaint.
This marks the second fire in more than two years at Mountain View Dairy, located near Stern Drive and New Mexico Highway 228 just south of Las Cruces. In January 2009, a similar hay fire took place.
Luis Gutierrez, 20, Joshua Jaramillo, 19, Carlos Martinez, 20, and Primitivo “Junior” Perez, 18, all volunteer firefighters with the Mesquite Fire Department, were booked into the Doca Ana County Detention Center on charges of conspiracy and arson, Jameson said.
Monday’s fire was reported around 11:30 p.m. Jameson said it was so big that fire crews from Mesquite, La Mesa and the South Valley Fire Departments were forced to let it burn out instead of battling it.
Damage to more than 400 bales of hay were estimated at $120,000 Tuesday. No injuries or structure damage were reported.
Monday’s fire was the latest late-night arson to strike Doca Ana County dairies, and not the first to allegedly be committed by a volunteer firefighter.
Last year, Ruben Marquez of Vado, N.M., and Javier Ramos Mercado of Las Cruces allegedly torched a barn containing 500 tons of hay at the Del Monte Dairy in Mesquite, causing about $140,000 in damage.
In January 2009, similar criminal hay fires caused more than $400,000 in damage at the Big Sky Dairy and the Mountain View Dairy.
The River Valley Dairy in Vado also suffered more than $100,000 in damage after a similar fire in March 2008.
In 2006, volunteer firefighter Jonathan Morales was charged with arson after allegedly setting three fires at the Bright Star, Dominguez and Gonzales dairies while drunk, causing an estimated $112,000 in damage.
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