Belen adds a new fire station on the west mesa

June 03, 2009

The New Mexico fire marshal’s office last week approved a new fire substation on the west mesa at Belen Alexander Airport.

“We’ve always had to go from downtown up that mesa,” said Councilor Wayne Gallegos. “It’s a killer.”

With the new substation, however, a fire truck is now housed on the mesa. The substation is a former airplane hangar. Besides the fire truck, it has a pumper truck, mass casualty trailer, paid and volunteer personnel on rotation and a telephone to respond to emergency calls.

It took 10 months for the City of Belen to get approved. Gallegos, Fire Chief Manny Garcia and Airport Director Robert Uecker had to figure out how to make the new substation a reality with almost no money to work with.

Garcia said he had a fire truck for it. Uecker found a building.

“He showed me the hangars,” said Gallegos, a retired fire chief. “There was one there they were debating — it’s old, it could be like new, it needs this, it needs that.”

He and Uecker agreed that having housed planes it could easily house a fire truck.

Gallegos got approval from the mayor. City Manager Sally Garley found the hangar’s deed to prove it was city-owned. City officials toured the hangar with the fire marshal’s office.

“We brought them in and were straight-up with them, saying this is the building,” Gallegos said. “It’s not a new building, but I’ve seen worse, even main stations. We showed them the roof, the bathrooms, the telephone the airport director put in.”

Slowly everything got pieced together, and after lots of communication and more meetings with the fire marshal’s office, the fire department was approved to move into the old hangar.

Gallegos said he expects money to begin flowing in July from the state for maintenance at the substation. The fire marshal’s office said the substation needs a heater and a roll-up garage door instead of the sliding doors it has now. The city has received a donated heater.

Garcia said the city will receive additional funding for basic operations and equipment. He’s also eyeing newly announced American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for renovation and construction of fire stations, saying the 25-year-old main station needs it most but either could get stimulus funding.

Valencia County might get involved in the new substation, Gallegos said, since most of the land and some housing on the west mesa is outside of municipal boundaries. Right now, the Belen Fire Department is the first to respond to fires on the west mesa.

Garcia wants the county to place a fire truck at the new substation to respond to calls in areas under county jurisdiction.

“As far as I’m concerned the seed has been planted,” Gallegos said. “This is good for businesses up there, for the housing area up there, and for the planning of building a new fire station up there.”

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