[Editor's Note: This is the third of a series of articles on the June 11, 2024 Commission meeting. It continues county director reports.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

The June 11, 2024, Grant County Commission work session continued with department director reports.

To continue reports, Emergency Manager Scot Fuller gave some updates.

He noted the Hazard Mitigation Plan group held its first meeting on May 15, after choosing H2O Partners as the contractor. "We plan to hold at least two more meetings. Hopefully by February or March of next year we we will have a FEMA approved- plan."

Grant County also received a grant from Community Wildfire Defense Program for $185,000 to update the Grant County Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).

The county received another award for $20,000 from the New Mexico Association of Counties for Wildfire Risk Reduction community outreach and education.

"I just submitted on June, 7 an application for the Emergency Manager Performance grant, which pays for half the salary," Fuller said. "I also submitted a grant application with State Homeland Security for four projects, including an update on our Emergency Operations Plan."

District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings said he had a question. "We had a big fire the other day, and I know all the commissioners and a lot of people have a lot of questions about that."

Fuller asked if it was the junk yard or the fire on Billings' property.

Billings thanked the volunteer fire departments for coming out and taking care of the one on his property, and the other lighting-caused fires. "I'm talking about the junk yard fire."

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce said he had a conversation with the county manager and the county attorney is looking into the issue. "I'm sure they will report to us on what our next action will be."

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne said he had attended remotely a planning meeting and has received a barrage of questions.

"I'm taking care of all that," Fuller replied.

County Fire Chief Roger Groves presented the next report. He said the projects he is working on are listed in his report, but he added a couple of events, one being the June 1 Rodeo Road/Spring Creek fire. He, too, said he would like to see a report.

He noted that he had attendedARFF (Airport Rescue and Fire Fighter) training in Dallas and became certified.

"We did have four lightning-caused fires on Friday," Groves said. "I am encouraging the VFD Chiefs to put in Fire Fund applications for grant funding. That will begin in July. I helped some identify things that they need. I want to encourage all of them to apply for the grant funding. We're using it [the funding] hard. Our departments are all trained. The wildland certifications are all in."

He noted he had been working with the Forest Srvice and the tanker issue that the Airport Manager Rebekah Wenger had mentioned may cause some delays, but that's more the worry of the Forest Service than the VFDs." There was a large tanker on the larger Whitetail fire near White Signal."

He showed a drone photo of the Rodeo Road fire. "It was started by an individual burning weeds, as he has told me twice, and it got away from him. It got into tires and put up a lot of fire and smoke. It also burned a power line that stretched across the middle, Dropping that electric line created a lot more fire on the north flank and that's when it really blew up."

Groves said there were a number of structures that burned and at least three significant explosions, believed to be fuel tanks on the property. He noted dozens of small propane tanks were in the area and some were exploding. On the Eastern side on Rodeo Road, "we stopped the progress of the fire. We had to back our trucks out because we were about to be overrun. The fire did not leave the property except for a large juniper on the corner that got a bit scorched. That was put out fairly quickly. We had a total of 74 personnel, a combination of Silver City Fire and volunteer fire fighters, with 62 of them being volunteers. An additional 44 apparatus were there, and we established a water tender shuttle for our efforts on the northern flank, where we eventually deployed a ladder truck, which was very successful in knocking down the areas inside the property that we couldn't send people into because it was far too dangerous. We established a water supply that stretched almost a mile and a half. We ran a 3-inch hose from the fire station on Rosedale Road to the trucks located on Rodeo Road. We had to close Rosedale Road, and I would like to commend (PAVFD) Chief Ed Downward for supervising the water supply and keeping watch on that. We had to insert a water tender into the center to boost the water pressure to the trucks. A few hours in, fortunately the explosions had subsided when we had firefighters up on the ladder truck. We had nine county water tenders. Eleven engines responded, as well as 13 brush trucks and 10 command vehicles, including ambulances and rescue units. We moved a lot of water. An unofficial estimation by the Rosedale Water Association is that we may have used 450,000 gallons of water. Preston Johnson was incident commander and everyone worked together great. I want to commend Preston. We also had great cooperation with law enforcement, Silver City and county, as well as PNM, Central Dispatch. Everything came together very well. No reported injuries, no loss of human life. it went well, although it was a long extended fight. Our last units left at 4 a.m., and units were back on scene by 10 a.m. on Sunday. I've continued to check the fire every day, and yesterday, there was no visible smoke. Today there is still some from the tire pile. It will continue to smoke until we can get equipment in to pull it apart to extinguish it."

The owner has some salvage people waiting to remove some of the stuff. "We still get calls, at least three so far, for smoke from the fire."

Browne asked about evacuations.

Groves said there were evacuations, but he didn't know how many, from homes on the south part of the road, performed by State Police and the Sheriff's Department. The owner of the property was also evacuated, "maybe unwillingly, but he was evacuated."

Groves also thanked Fuller for opening the emergency evacuation center at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center.

Ponce thanked all the firefighters, law enforcement and everyone involved. "I haven't seen any advertisement this year for defensible space, because it is so dry. First thing that occurred to me was the Ridge Road fire that was so devastating."

County Manager Charlene Webb said she had discussed it with Groves that is it time to provide the education to remind people so they are cognizant of the need for defensible space around their homes.

Billings asked if it was legal to burn now "as dry as it is?"

Groves said no restrictions were in place.

Webb said restrictions are often led by the state, "but there is no reason to wait on the state. We can establish our own standards, but then we have to monitor the entire county and determine what is relevant or not relevant. We've always followed the state."

Groves said there is a matrix to follow. "We're not meeting everything to implement the restrictions yet. Although it doesn't mean we can't do something. The deadline for fireworks is past in the city. We're not meeting the criteria."

Ponce said the county needs to look at fireworks for July 4. "It's not only the danger of the fires, but it also impacts our veterans and our animals."

District 2 Commission Eloy Medina asked the chief if the county could consider a burn permission policy in order to have a bit more control.

"Yes, we can, and our fire chiefs can also implement such permits," Groves said. "Silver City has burn permits into the extra-territorial zone and into Tyrone."

Medina thought such a policy would empower the county and the chiefs to tell people they could not burn, with law enforcement being able to place fines for not getting permits.

Webb said she would check with other counties. She said Sierra County had such a policy and the chief could put out a notice that it was a no-burn day, and there was a process for getting a burn permit.

Medina also encouraged education on the issue.

Groves reported a total of 236 calls in April and May, including 32 fires, 187 EMS calls and 17 others including false alarms.

Browne wanted to clarify that burn permits were required in the ETZ, and Groves confirmed that people were supposed to get permits before burning. "If we get a call about a fire in the ETZ. We will let them know they need to get a permit from Silver City Fire."

Browne asked if was enforceable.

"Burning of solid waste is illegal, but burning slash is OK," Groves. "I've not seen it enforced."

The next article will conclude county reports and get into the review of the regular meeting.

To read the previous articles, please visit: https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/grant-county-commission-work-session-061124-part-1; and https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/grant-county-commission-work-session-061124-part-2