​LAFD Wildland Fire Division Chief Ramon Garcia is retiring Sept. 21 after 23 years of service. Photo by Maire O’Neill/ladailypost.com

As Los Alamos Fire Department Wildland Fire Division Chief Ramon Garcia gets ready to retire Sept. 21, it’s clear that he will never stop pushing prevention and mitigation and thinking of how to keep the community safe.

It’s hard to believe that after 23 years, 20 of them firefighting with LAFD, Garcia will be able to have that quiet cup of coffee in the morning, bike to the gym and stop at the Pojoaque Store on the way home for green chile stew. As he describes his plans to spend October hunting with his sons, James and Andrew, he also is quick to point out that he has worked hard to make the transition for his successor as smooth as possible.

Garcia was in Los Alamos for the Cerro Grande Fire in 2000, which he calls the hardest fire he ever fought because of the treacherous winds he experienced as he worked to suppress the fire in the town, and in the County as well as at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received a Medal of Valor for his heroic actions during Cerro Grande and also a Medal of Service for his work during the 2011 Las Conchas Fire.

However his fellow firefighters say they will remember him for other reasons.

“Chief Garcia has achieved great success in his career, but his biggest success was with his family, being a good husband and father. We all want to do that and to do it as well as he has for 27 years,” one firefighter-paramedic commented.

Garcia said he has always tried to push prevention in every aspect during his career. After seeing the fires that have affected the community, he realized that fires will start but that if they can be kept on the ground, they can be extinguished. Keeping fires on the ground opens the canopy allowing moisture to get to the trees and the forest will be better for it, he said.

Garcia is proud of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, which was updated in 2016. The plan categorizes the wildfire risk of individual neighborhoods and describes areas of priority for mitigation. Some of those areas include Pueblo Canyon, the area behind Walnut Street and removing the mistletoe, which has appeared in the area near Camino Redondo. He said 1,500 to 2,000 tiny trees have grown near Range Road and there are plans to thin those out before the area becomes a problem.

LAFD has been collaborating with the Department of Energy and Los Alamos National Laboratory fire officials to go in and thin out the trees behind the Oppenheimer and Timber Ridge neighborhoods.

“I am super-impressed with what the Lab has been doing. They have been working on clearing buffer zones, which is making it safer for everyone including firefighters,” he said.

Something else that makes Garcia proud is that in two years the number of information contacts with the public has increased from 13,000 to 26,000.

“It makes me proud to see that LAFD is getting out there and discussing prevention with the community – everything from smoke detectors to ‘stop, drop and roll,” he said. “It’s a team effort. That’s what I love about fire service. It’s a unity of individuals that bond together to help the community.”

Originally from Silver City, Garcia was introduced to firefighting at New Mexico State University where he was employed with the NMSU Fire Department and was promoted to the rank of Driver/Engineer. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education, he moved to Northern New Mexico where he taught and coached in the public school system for four years. In 1997, Garcia joined LAFD where he held the rank of firefighter, safety specialist, acting safety captain, support officer and captain before reaching his present position.

Garcia and his wife Kathleen live in Pojoaque. Kathleen works for the City of Santa Fe and is eligible to retire next summer.