Questionable actions taken by the chief of the Abiquiú Fire Department last month have cost the Department its ambulance.
At about 11:30 p.m., the night of July 12, Chief Phillip Trujillo received a personal call from one of his volunteer firefighters, Christella Cordova, according to Rio Arriba County EMS Coordinator Mateo DeVargas. Cordova sought treatment for an anxiety attack and asked Trujillo to take her to Española Hospital. Trujillo did so, in the Department’s ambulance, though he is not a licensed emergency medical technician, DeVargas said. DeVargas said Trujillo called in the transport to the Española/Rio Arriba County 911 Center, but never called police.
Cordova said she doesn’t remember the events of that evening and would not comment about it in detail. She did say she called Trujillo because she knew he would keep it quiet, whereas she thought the licensed technicians in the Department would tell people about what happened.
“They choose their favorites,” she said. “The rest don’t keep nothing confidential.”
She said she didn’t encourage Trujillo to call law enforcement. She said she told him he didn’t have to help her if he thought it would get him into trouble. But he drove her, anyway, which she considers a sign of their friendship.
“I would have done the same thing for him,” she said.
Cordova said she stayed in the hospital a day before being released.
DeVargas said he learned of the hospital trip and took action a few days after it happened.
“I heard about it, so I confronted the chief,” he said.
Trujillo did not return calls seeking comment.
DeVargas said the County Fire Marshal’s office took possession of the ambulance and is currently storing it at the County complex in Española. He said County Fire Marshal Jerome Sanchez and County Manager Lorenzo Valdez are conferring to decide how to discipline Trujillo.
“I do believe there needs to be some action taken,” DeVargas said.
A message left for Valdez was not returned.
The County is also deciding on the conditions under which the ambulance will be returned to the Department. DeVargas said the ambulance used to be stored on Trujillo’s property, and the Department will have to find another place to keep it. The Department is currently working with the County on plans for a substation where it could potentially be housed, and volunteers are exploring other options until that building is finished.
DeVargas said the ambulance was not well-maintained, and the County will have to decide what to do about that, as well.
Tom Rogge is the Department’s EMS Coordinator. He does not blame the County for taking the ambulance.
“I think it was appropriate for what happened,” he said.
He said the ambulance was reliable but was not used often.
“The ambulance was to be used for transport only if the Española ambulances were tied up,” he said.
However, Rogge could think of two occasions since the ambulance was taken in mid-July when it would have been useful. Once, a tourist from Texas was experiencing high-altitude sickness at Ghost Ranch and had to wait nearly 90 minutes for emergency responders to arrive from Española; on another occasion, a woman was experiencing signs of a heart attack, and Rogge said equipment in the ambulance, such as a defibrillator, could have been helpful.
“It would have been nice to have access,” he said.
The ambulance incident appears to be only one in a string of lapses by Trujillo that have affected the Department in his nearly 10 years as chief. An inspection of the Department the state Fire Marshal’s office conducted in June contains a long list of deficiencies.
The Department did not have a map of the Abiquiú Fire district displayed, and the building and grounds had a “poor” appearance. Equipment the National Fire Protection Association requires was missing from the Department’s vehicles, and necessary records were not stored at the Department. Bylaws were not available, pump and hose tests had not been conducted and vehicle logs were missing. Smoke detectors did not have an emergency power supply, and lighting was found to be insufficient. The Department was not even correctly listed in the phone book, though Sanchez said the County and Department have supplied the correct number to the book’s publishers. Calls to the state Fire Marshal’s office were not returned.
“Documentation seems to be a real weakness overall,” Sanchez said. “A lot of these things are real easy fixes.”
Sanchez said he hasn’t seen any indication that Trujillo is working to address them, however, and he said Trujillo has been consistently unresponsive when dealing with the County. For example, the County will soon be testing SCBA bottles (which contain air firefighters can breathe in thick smoke) for volunteer departments throughout the County, and it does not look as if Abiquiú will be participating.
Cordova expressed frustration, saying, as with the taking of the ambulance, the County’s treatment of the Department hasn’t been fair. She said the Department has had trouble getting its requests filled, though Trujillo has been making an effort.
“We’ve done basically a lot for the County as far as our calls and stuff,” she said. “We have had trouble with the County.”
She said she has been with the Department for six years. Minutes from a June 12 meeting show Trujillo nominated Cordova to become a lieutenant, though a provision in the Department’s bylaws prevented a vote from being taken. Cordova is still a volunteer firefighter, but she could face disciplinary action from the County, DeVargas said.