I want to acknowledge and give my wholehearted thanks to Volunteer Fire Chief Eddie Velarde and the men and women of four volunteer fire departments, (Velarde, Alcalde, Chamita and Okay Owingeh) who responded Nov. 20 to a grass fire on my property.
The fire came very close to getting totally out of control and doing severe damage to my neighbor’s property. I would say that within 10 minutes of my wife calling 911, the fire department arrived and swung into action.
Before I realized it, three more fire trucks arrived, they went to both of my neighbor’s properties and started putting out the fires that had sprouted and were moving fast due to the wind. Between the Rio Arriba Sheriff’s Office doing traffic control and the responding fire departments doing what they do, the situation was handled in a quick and very professional manner.
Words can barely describe the gratefulness and respect I have for these first responders. They are true professionals in every sense of the word. Once more, thank you Chief Velarde and the people who responded, your dedication had most definitely kept a very bad situation from turning into a worse nightmare that could have had dire consequences, to say the least.
Calvin Smith
Velarde