Bluewater’s Pioneer Day; Celebrating the village’s successes and future

BLUEWATER, N.M. – Pioneer Day, a celebration of the settlement of Bluewater, New Mexico, took place on July 17. The celebration of the village’s founding was a welcome return to normal since the COVID-19 pandemic stopped large public gatherings and events from taking place, with scores of citizens from across New Mexico at the celebration. Villagers in Bluewater didn’t just celebrate the return to crowds or even just the village’s founding, they were celebrating the expansion of their fire department.

Bluewater VFD

Once upon a time the Bluewater Volunteer Fire Department was the largest staffed volunteer fire department in Cibola County, with its one-bay room fire department, volunteers would endanger themselves for no other payment than the security of their community. After nearly five years of cutting through bureaucratic red tape, the Bluewater VFD has finally held their grand opening of the expanded fire department.

Now, Bluewater and all of its surrounding locations will be better protected against the threat of fire. Bluewater Volunteer Fire Chief Preston Neff said that the expansion of the building will greatly increase the department’s firefighting capabilities. The Bluewater VFD currently boasts an Insurance Service Office rating of 4, down from a 6, which will decrease the insurance cost of people living in the Bluewater VFD’s jurisdiction. The rating is down from a 10, which the department had since Neff took over as chief; in the years since he took over at the age of 26 Neff has been actively working to make Bluewater safer by making the fire department stronger.

Before expansion, the fire department consisted of one large bay room for truck storage. Now, the department consists of a shower/locker room, a briefing and training room, two administrative offices and a de-contamination facility.

“In the old days, the blacker your equipment the more seasoned of a firefighter you were,” Neff said, “Well that got a lot of firefighters killed. We need to keep our equipment clean, so before our guys can enter [the fire station] they can get cleaned off.” The de-contamination facility came in handy during the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, Neff said, as firefighters could take off their gear which may have been exposed to the virus, and shower to make sure they didn’t carry any of it with them back home.

With the establishment of the two administrative offices the fire department is now better equipped to handle requests from the state for information. Cibola County Fire Marshal Dustin Middleton said that the state often requests specific information from fire departments, and they expect it to be readily available, in the past, Bluewater VFD would have these records stored in cardboard boxes and not readily available because there was nowhere to store them.

Out of the new facility, in the event of an emergency, the Cibola County Emergency Manger’s Office which is also led by Fire Marshal Middleton, can use the facility as a staging and information center, and the Red Cross can similarly use the facility if necessary. Firefighters will be able to use the new facility for training, a boon to every fire department in the county. Middleton explained that there are several different annual trainings required of firefighters, and that it isn’t necessarily feasible to get every firefighter in the county out to Albuquerque for their necessary training. Because of this, the Cibola County Fire Command has been actively working with the state to bring training to Cibola, a series of trainings will be taking place this weekend across the county.

The Bluewater Volunteer Fire Department was established back in 1952, before Cibola County existed. This is the first major improvement made to the building in its 69-year history. Right now, Bluewater VFD is facing the same issue as all of the other volunteer departments – a serious shortage of volunteers.

“It takes someone with a special kind of mettle,” Fire Marshal Middleton said to the agreement of Chief Neff. “These guys go out there and they don’t get paid, they just do this work for their community.” To become a volunteer firefighter – and they’re in need of assistance at all kinds, from cleaning to paperwork, cooking to actual firefighting, any help is appreciated – all any interested person needs to do is ask a firefighter or firechief for an application. After a background check and an agreement that the applicant will be a resource to the department, they can become a volunteer fire fighter.

Fire Marshal Middleton said that he helped to facilitate the necessary connections between local government and Bluewater VFD, “But all of the credit goes to Chief Neff, he made this happen.”

Celebrations

Just before the hose decupling that celebrated the grand opening of the expanded fire department, Paul Spencer, a coordinator and organizer for the Pioneer Day celebration, spoke about the need of community in closing the nation’s divide and bringing all Americans back together. He pointed to the successful parade that made its way down Mainstreet in Bluewater onto Pinon Street, he pointed to citizens collectively celebrating their community as a need to get back to the roots of America.

Festivities began around 8 a.m. as villagers settled in for a pancake breakfast, enjoyed music, vendors and bouncy houses for awhile before it was time for the parade to roll through the village, one of the floats in the parade boasted the original bell from the original Bluewater Elementary School. After candy, confetti and toys were given out across the parade route, festival goers had time to get a cold drink on the warm-weathered day, enjoying face painting, a basket weaving presentation, and dancing in the streets. Events culminated in a car show and the grand opening of the fire department before fireworks and a community potluck dinner rounded out the night.

Ramah will be having a Pioneer Day event on July 24.