For some of our neighbors, firefighting is a year-round job

All of us have been focused on wildfire this spring, but when the Calf Canyon–Hermits Peak Fire is finally tamed and hotshot crews from out of state return home, that focus will shift — but only for some of us.

The U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affair sponsor over 100 hotshot crews throughout the United States, and many of them have come here to New Mexico to fight the big fire that’s dominated our news this spring.

It might be easy to overlook the smaller ones our local fire departments put out recently, fires that, under such dry and windy conditions, could have become catastrophic as well had local volunteers not acted quickly.

One of the more notable incidents took place on May 10, when three small brush fires were started by sparks from a vehicle’s catalytic converter in Taos Canyon. The second was this past weekend, when on Sunday, a fire started in a residential area off Salazar Road, burned a shed and threatened nearby homes. We could hear the quick response over the police scanner that’s always on in our office. The urgency in the voices of firefighters who responded to that blaze said it all: Things are dangerous out there right now.

While there has been a lot of talk around Taos in recent weeks about the big fire and whether it might reach our area (officials have said that won’t happen), it’s these relatively small fires that we really need to worry about, the ones that start up in places you don’t expect and can spread easily, particularly if people haven’t put in the hour or so it takes to clear dry weeds from their yards or take other flammables to the dump. And if you’re foolish enough to burn anything right now, well, be ready for your neighbors to report you and face legal consequences.

It’s not the hotshot crews we now see in the grocery store aisles who fight these local fires year-round — it’s a volunteer, your neighbor perhaps, who works in one of the 13 fire districts across the county. These districts are mostly volunteer-run, with the exception of our paid county fire marshal and county fire chief. These folks come to your aid not only when a fire becomes a problem; they also respond if you are in a bad car crash. They’re often the first on the scene when someone has a heart attack. In fact, most of the calls volunteer firefighters take have nothing to do with fire. In almost any emergency, a fire truck is going to be there, with volunteers aboard trained and ready to help.

This is a special service, one to never take for granted.

We’re grateful to the brave men and women who have come to fight the big fire, but let us extend our thanks to all locals who will be here to fight all the other ones long after they’ve left.