There’s a big hotel going up in the center of Española, but future guests may want to avoid staying on the top floors.
Española Fire Chief John Kitchen said the planned structure — an addition to Santa Clara Pueblo’s Big Rock Casino — is too tall for the city’s fire trucks to provide full protection.
“I can reach four of the six stories for evacuation purposes,” Kitchen said.
Although Kitchen said he had been told the planned hotel is six stories tall, Española Mayor Joseph Maestas said he received information from the Pueblo indicating that the hotel will have seven floors and 120 rooms.
Neither Pueblo Governor Walter Dasheno nor the president of the Pueblo’s development corporation, Calvin Tafoya, responded to several requests for comment. A foreman at the building site referred questions to Tafoya, who refused to give any information or allow access to the site.
A fire truck capable of serving the new structure would cost $2 million unequipped and $2.5 to $3 million fully equipped, Kitchen said.
That’s more than three times the annual budget for the entire city Fire Department.
Neither the city nor the Pueblo has the money to purchase such a truck, Kitchen said. Even if the city could afford it, the Department doesn’t have enough firefighters. Kitchen said he can’t staff the ladder truck he has now.
“The problem is, where is it gonna stay and who’s gonna man it?” Kitchen said.
Small trucks and staffs aren’t the only problem. City Water Director Marvin Martinez said the four-inch water main that feeds the casino property would probably max out at fewer than 1,000 gallons per minute — and that’s about one-third the water pressure needed to fight a commercial fire.
If firefighters tried to pull 3,000 gallons per minute out of the hydrants in that area, it would collapse the water system, Martinez said.
Maestas said he doesn’t think it’s prudent for the city to provide water service to the hotel, and thereby assume some liability, if it knows it can’t provide fire protection.
“I just don’t want us to have egg on our faces when this hotel is built, that we’re facing a situation where we can’t adequately protect it against fire,” Maestas said.
Kitchen said the city finds itself in a catch-22 for fire protection of any tribal properties. Legally, the casino and its adjacent strip mall are on tribal land, so the Pueblo is responsible for fire protection.
But in reality, Española firefighters are the first crew to arrive on scene, and the city’s insurance rating suffers because it doesn’t do inspections of those properties.
“Yes, it’s Santa Clara property,” Kitchen said. “However, it’s in the city.”
Kitchen said the Pueblo has never accepted his offer to inspect the casino and strip mall in order to create such plans.
Kitchen said no one from the Pueblo has approached him to discuss fire protection for the new building — he only learned of the broad outlines of the project because he ran into Santa Clara Fire Chief Mel Martinez at a conference in Albuquerque last week.
Kitchen’s not the only one. Because the casino is on tribal land, administrators in every city department are left out of the loop.
Martinez said the Pueblo has only submitted a preliminary request for water service, and it did not deal with specifics about fire protection.
Planning Director Cyrus Samii said the Pueblo isn’t required to apply for a building permit.
The city typically asks for a courtesy application, but they have not received one, Samii said.