Belen Fire Department completes strategic plan; growth

BELEN—With a growing need for services in the Hub City, Belen Fire Chief Charles Cox said the fire department should grow as well.

During a recent council meeting, the fire chief presented his five-year strategic plan, saying the last time the department completed such a document was in 2010 when Manny Garcia was chief.

“There have been a lot of changes since then,” said Cox, who has been the fire chief since October 2022.

The Belen Fire Department’s strategic plan is for the years 2025-29. Cox said it is an important document as it serves as the planning guide to include anticipating the future and the needs of the department, the city and its citizens.

“We knew it was time to update our strategic plan, and since we just completed our ISO, it was very important and showed us where we were lacking and where we need to improve down the line,” Cox said.

The fire chief told the council they did hire an outside contractor to help cultivate the strategic plan. Cox said it is the same company, Command Consulting in Tijeras, who has helped other departments, such as Los Lunas and others around the state.

“This carves out the direction we need to go,” the chief said. “It took us a year to put this together. It includes the department’s mission, vision and values along with an organizational chart.”

The Belen Fire Department was established in 1921, and today serves about 8,300 residents in a nearly 15 square mile jurisdiction.

The department is currently staffed with 17 full-time personnel at the main station, supported by the command staff. They have 1.5 volunteers, Cox said.

The BFD, which operates out of two main stations and one sub-station, has four engines, a ladder truck, two brush trucks and two EMS units.

“We do have two new brand new engines, and two older,” Cox said. “The ladder truck is 24 years old, and we’re working on trying to get capital outlay funding to replace it.”

In 2023, the department’s personnel responded to 143 fire calls and 163 rescue and EMS calls. The department’s total call volume has “drastically” increased over the last few years, from 155 in 2000, 592 in 2021, 724 in 2022 and 779 in 2023.

BFD Deputy Chief Michael Wessels told the council they are still reconciling the numbers from 2024, which, he said, has some discrepancies.

“The current trends indicates that the overall call volume will continue to grow at a rapid pace as the city of Belen grows and as more economic opportunities in the area are developed,” the plan states. “This growth will place a strain on department resources.

Cox said the city’s ISO ratings has improved from a 5 to a 4, and is hoping to improve it in the next couple of years.

ISO stands for Insurance Services Office, which is an independent, for-profit organization. The ISO scores fire departments on how they are doing against its organization’s standards to determine property insurance costs. A fire department is rated on a scale from 1-10. The lower the ISO, the better.

During the process of putting the plan together, Cox said he enlisted the input of a focus group, who suggests the city increase the number of career firefighters by eight.

“We also need to staff the second station, and we’re halfway there,” Cox said. “Right now, we’re in the process of hiring seven. Those positions have already been approved by the council.

“We do have a couple of slots that are open for people who have no firefighting experience, and we can send them to CNM’s firefighter academy — a 20-week course,” Cox said.

The fire chief said the city needs to plan for the future, including increasing the number of personnel at the Belen Fire Department because of the increased amount of calls in the Hub City.

Cox said the department is in need of both a fire inspector as well as a training officer. He said because they don’t have enough firefighters to fight fires when EMTs are out on a call, they need additional personnel, including battalion chiefs.

“If they need a driver, they have to call one of us (command staff),” Cox said. “There are times that there might be one person who can respond, so we need more people. We can’t do this on EMS calls because we don’t have the personnel. We have to rely on mutual aid.”

Cox said the department is constantly trying to recruit their workforce, and have hired from within its volunteer service, but with fewer volunteers, it’s been very difficult.

“Recently, we have had to hire ‘outside’ the department,” the plan states. “As our department grows, we must be prepared to market our department as a top-notch public service employer with a strong record in the emergency services community and provide competitive salary and benefit packages.”

Belen City Councilor Rudy Espinoza said told the chief he’s “really concerned about what he’s hearing,” saying Belen fire personnel have to make hard choices on a daily basis.

Cox explained that when firefighters respond to a structure fire, the rule is “two in and two out,” meaning two firefighters go in while two others remain outside as back up, maintaining the scene and equipment and apparatus.

“We’ve never met that,” Cox said of the department’s lack of personnel. “If we have people coming in from mutual aid, we’ll send them in. The best scenario is to have four on scene, but that rarely happens here. That’s the rule, but if something happens, who is there to rescue us?

“Our job is to get in there try to save them the best way that we can without endangering our lives. We don’t trade a life for a life,” Cox said. “We’ll do the best we can and do what we have to do. When you deal with a small department, we have to make a split decision on scene. We do what we’re trained to do to the best of our ability.”

The strategic plan also calls for station construction and remodel projects, including:

• Remodel of fire station No. 2

• Construction of a new stand-alone fire administration building to allow for growth in the existing fire station No. 1

• Construction of a new fire station in the West Mesa area

• Construction of a new fire station near the I-25 bypass area

The fire chief said the main goal of the strategic plan is to deliver the “highest level of emergency services” to the community, and to make sure the health and welfare of the firefighters are recognized.

“We’re also going to try and establish a junior firefighter program to get the youth interested in the fire service,” Cox said.