Wind Canyon Fire Station, a station affiliated with the Tyrone Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, opened and dedicated its brand-new station on Oct. 9.

Fire Chief Roger Dombrowski gave the Beat a tour and explained the equipment, the training and how to volunteer. The first lieutenant, Ray Sytch, is in charge of the trucks, and the second lieutenant, Tom Pickering, is in charge of the building.

The station has four apparatuses. The rehab vehicle contains cooling chairs, medical response equipment and First Aid equipment.

“It's a place for firefighters to recuperate,” Dombrowski said. “It is also used for answering medical emergencies. It goes out often to answer several calls a week.”

The brush truck has a winch, hand tools for fighting wildland fires, can go offroad with its four-wheel drive, and carries 300 gallons of water.

The engine is for structure fires and vehicle emergencies. It can hold 750 gallons, and can pump 750 gallons a minute, preferably from hydrants. Dombrowski said between the station and Silver City and toward Tyrone, most sites have hydrants. However, west of the station, which Is located on the Truck By-pass Road near the intersection with U.S. 180 West, no hydrants are installed.

“If the engine's running a two-inch hose, it takes about 200 gallons a minute,” the chief said. “We have a hydrant for the station, so we can refill the trucks and tenders.”

The engine had storage for self-contained breathing apparatuses in the case of fighting a structure fire. He explained that structure fires have plastics and other materials that are possibly toxic when burning, so “we carry our own air.”

“We fight natural fires upwind to stay out of the smoke, and generally do not require the SCBAs,” Dombrowski said.

Each truck has minimal medical “stuff,” oxygen masks, including those for pets, burn kits, First Aid kits, and rescue blankets.

“The rehab truck also had a defibrillator, and we're hoping to outfit each truck with one,” Dombrowski.

The fourth vehicle is a tender, so-called to differentiate it from a tanker, which is an airborne water carrier.

The tender holds 1,800 gallons of water. It also had a 2,100-gallon “pond,” into which the water can be pumped.

“The tender takes the water to where the incident commander wants it, dumps it into the pond, then returns for more water,” Dombrowski said. “Each truck can also draft the water out of the pond and into its tanks.”

He explained the equipment, including what is on the vehicles, is inspected weekly, in addition to other periodic inspections and maintenance.

Dombrowski pointed out one of the training tools the sandbox trainer. It can simulate fire, and the trucks or tenders and personnel train on certain scenarios.

It was set up for a wildland fire to teach tactics to fight the fire inside the flame, and to fight within an area already burned out, “so it won't get us.”

The training simulates the organization with the incident commander and engine crews and how they would respond.

“That's one way to train,” Dombrowski said. “We also do videos, lectures, and hands-on apparatus training. After every fire, we do an after-action review to determine what we did right and what we can improve.”

The station has a large training room that is also used by other county departments.

A kitchen is available for the auxiliary members to prepare food for firefighters, who use many calories during a blaze.

On the wall beside the entrance door is a framed dedication:

This building is dedicated to the volunteer firefighters, the EMTs, and associates who have gone before us and who will come after us. We expect no more from you than we do ourselves.

Commitment to Training

Dedication to Duty and

Service to our Community.

Tyrone Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department

Wind Canyon Station

October 9, 2011.

Above the dedication is a metal dragon, which was given to the station by the Hachita Fire Chief. Calling them dragon slayers, he was impressed by volunteers at the station who planned and implemented construction of the station within about 3 ½ years.

“He called us dragon slayers, and we've kind of taken on the name,” Dombrowski said.

He explained that most of the fires the station's equipment and volunteers respond to are “not in our district. We also respond to all calls within the Tyrone Fire District, except Hachita.”

The primary contribution of a fire department is to attack a fire while small so it doesn't get large.

“During the Quail Ridge Fire, conditions were against us,” Dombrowski said.

The station has 22 firefighters and EMTs and four auxiliary and general members.

“We're always looking for more help,” Dombrowski said.

Those interested in joining the Wind Canyon Fire Station are invited to call Dombrowski at 538-5221 or email him at lanid47@aol.com.