San Juan County's 10 fire districts eliminated. What's next for fire protection services?

A plan approved last fall to dissolve San Juan County Fire & Rescue’s 10 fire districts and consolidate them under one entity has taken effect.

County officials announced the change in a Feb. 1 news release, emphasizing that the elimination of the 10 districts should not lead members of the public to see a difference in their service. But they did acknowledge that each of the districts had a unique identity while serving their specific geographical region within the county.

David Vega, who took over as San Juan County Fire & Rescue chief on Jan. 31, 2023, pushed for the change as one of his first initiatives. He delivered a lengthy presentation to the San Juan County Commission in early October on the department’s manpower shortage, which stemmed mostly from a sharp decline over several years in the number of volunteer firefighters.

Vega said the elimination of the fire districts would allow the department to meet the state-mandated minimum of having four trained firefighters respond to every structure fire. The department was only getting credit for the number of trained firefighters who responded to such incidents from the district in which it occurred. When a firefighter from another district responded, as was frequently the case, his or her participation did not count toward meeting that state standard, Vega said, adding that seven districts in the county had fallen short of the mandate.

“If the state fire marshal was to come in today and do an audit on us, technically, they would be able to say, ‘You have to close your doors down because you do not meet this standard,” Vega said in October. “ … That keeps me up at night.”

The elimination of the districts means that San Juan County Fire & Rescue will be evaluated as a whole for Insurance Service Organization ratings, the release states.

“It is anticipated that this consolidation of apparatus, personnel, and resources will result in improved responses and therefore lower ISO ratings, and lower insurance rates,” the release states. “Updated ISO ratings will be awarded in early 2025.”

Officials said the county will be divided into four regions of service under the new plan, which was subsequently approved by the commission. But firefighters will be able to respond to more than their home region.

Commissioners also approved the hiring of three full-time and five part-time firefighters/EMTs, while signing off on the reassignment of other agency personnel.

The reduction in the number of volunteer firefighters the county has been able to rely on has been stark. In October, Vega said the department had approximately 300 volunteers when he joined the agency in 2011 as a volunteer. But by last fall, at the time of his presentation, he said that number had fallen to 150 or 160.

In the news release it issued Feb. 1, the county indicated that number now stands at approximately 130 members.

Lack of volunteers a common issue

San Juan County Fire & Rescue’s volunteer manpower woes are not unique to the organization. A quick Google search reveals a seemingly endless list of accounts of fire departments across the nation that are struggling to remain adequately staffed, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, a nonprofit membership association representing the needs of the volunteer fire, EMS and rescue services communities, there were 897,750 volunteer firefighters in the country in 1984. By 2020, the most recent year for which figures were available, that figure had fallen to 676,900 – a reduction of more than 200,000 people.

Additionally, according to the same organization, the volunteer firefighting corps is growing older rapidly, with the number of such volunteers who are 50 or older essentially doubling between 1987 and 2020.

The challenges are much the same in fire departments across New Mexico. In September 2023, the Eddy County Commission approved the closure of four fire stations in Carlsbad, one in Loving and one in Artesia as a cost-saving measure while the agency struggles to fill its volunteer ranks. Those changes came after Eddy County Fire and Rescue transitioned from 11 volunteer fire districts to three paid centralized sections in 2022, a move that in many ways mirrors the changes San Juan County Fire & Rescue has experienced.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: San Juan County's 10 fire districts eliminated due to staff shortage