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Waiting for their moment

Members of wildland firefighting crew prepare for potentially devastating season

By Victoria Traxler vtraxler@sfnewmexican.com

Atrickle of pine needles falling to the ground. The crackle of fire as it burns through brush. Birds chirping against the eerie backdrop of silence and smoke.

They are the sights and sounds most people never experience. But they’ll likely be familiar to the Santa Fe Fire Department’s 2021 Atalaya Hand Crew, a wildland firefighting unit that could prove critical as a foreboding season approaches.

Although the city of Santa Fe has not seen a serious wildfire threat in years, Atalaya crew boss Josh Chavarria said the team always needs to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

And with the wooded areas in and around the city beyond tinder-dry, that possibility seems more real than ever.

“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” Chavarria said. “We can only prepare for the worst and then hope for the best.”

The city’s only Wildland Division hand crew, the 15-member team consists of several new members and veterans returning for another fire season. Wildland firefighting includes attacking anything from large forest fires to small brush fires.

This year, three women are part of the Atalaya group. For some people, the added diversity is a big deal. For others, it’s simply a fact of the job.

Rikki Valentine, 26, is starting her fourth summer with the Atalaya Wildland Hand Crew. She said being the only woman on the team for the last three seasons has never been an issue.

“I’m just another person on the crew,” she said. “I mean, I may have longer hair, but I’m not treated differently. It just feels like an equal team.”

Valentine said she applied for the position after she felt called to put her life on the line. On an impulse, she decided to switch careers and join the fire department.

“I actually knew nothing about fire,” she said. “I saw Atalaya was hiring and I was like, ‘This might be a calling. This might just be out of nowhere, but I’m going to just try and see if I can get in.’ ”

She’s already seen plenty: Valentine said one of the most memorable moments of her career happened when she was perched on the edge of a mountainside during the Emery Gap Fire on the Colorado-New Mexico state line in 2018, watching flames jump from trees as a plume of smoke swelled before her.

Valentine is joined this summer by three-year veteran Breanna Gonzales, 22, who has worked on other crews in the past and was encouraged by her boyfriend to take a position with the Atalaya unit.

“I just was always a little intimidated because of how well the program’s run,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot of things that I didn’t even know were possible to learn, which is awesome because I feel like it’s very important to continuously learn new information because of this type of job.”

Wildland firefighting has little in common with Rachel Mares’ other job: wedding photographer. But as the coronavirus pandemic strangled business, Mares, 35, decided to take a shot at something new.

“The door opened and I just kept walking,” she said. “It was like, ‘All right, weddings are dead right now because of COVID. Let me go out, let me be outside, let me just do something different and find something else.’ ”

A 3-mile hike with a 45-pound weighted vest — aptly named the “Arduous Pack Test” — awaited Mares and all applicants. Potential crew members are required to complete the hike in 45 minutes or less. Other rounds of intense physical exercises follow the exhausting test — one not everyone passes.

Mares said that as she finished an exhausting day, an older man passed by and offered a surprising pep talk.

“He’s like, ‘They might have the brute strength, but you’re a woman. You have the intuition,’ ” she said.

Chavarria said agility and fitness training are not designed to measure physical endurance, but to gauge who can push themselves and has the heart for the job.

“It’s not pass or fail because if you don’t do well on it, we want to see your determination and see how willing you are to stick with it,” he said. “If we see that you might not be in the best of shape, we’ll get you there.”

Chavarria, a crew boss for five years, has been with the fire department’s Wildland Division for eight years. His is one of four permanent Wildland Division positions, alongside three squad boss positions. He designs the team’s daily plans, which include physical training every morning at 7, plus strenuous off-trail hikes, fire simulations and training on tools and equipment use. Once hired, crew members must undergo an 80-hour training period to be fully certified and prepared for the season.

“The ideal team is one that loves hard work and the outdoors,” he said.

Their intense training and physical requirements are designed to ensure the team is ready for when real emergencies occur. Chavarria said it is not uncommon to hike miles into wilderness with all their gear before they even start working, which requires digging, chopping and sawing.

Like other firefighters, often they will return from one call and quickly have to turn around and go out to another, he said.

For the veterans, the demands of the job are exhausting. But the rewards are great. The feeling of family developed among the crew is indisputable, said seven-season veteran Steven Apodaca.

“In that moment, your adrenaline’s pumping,” he said. “For someone who’s never done it, your adrenaline gets going and it is very overwhelming. Everyone lies, but everyone gets scared.”

As part of New Mexico’s resource mobilization plan, the Atalaya crew may get called out to help fight fires in other Western states. Their time spent aiding other departments is reimbursed to the city.

When not fighting fires, the crew is digging fire lines, implementing prescribed burns and conducting home assessments in Santa Fe.

“Atalaya has a strong name. Santa Fe Fire Department in itself as a whole has a very reputable name,” said Nathan Miller, recently appointed as superintendent of the Wildland Division. “I want to have a crew that wants to represent the city of Santa Fe and represent our division.”

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2021-05-17T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-17T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://enewmexican.pressreader.com/article/281505049110608

Santa Fe New Mexican