The city of Las Vegas wants $10 million from New Mexico lawmakers to create a regional fire training center to help firefighters quickly respond to wildfires.
The request comes nearly one year after the historically devastating Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire that ravaged northern New Mexico.
Las Vegas City Councilor David Romero said last year’s devastating fires show building a fire training center is “a need and not a want anymore.” A training center would provide more resources in the area to prevent a wildfire from spreading out of control.
“We feel that, in rural New Mexico, we don’t have the resources that Central New Mexico might have, or the southern part has, especially due to the nature that we have a lot of forestry area in this area,” Romero told KOB.
The training center reportedly would be located near the Las Vegas airport and serve as a regional hub for local and out-of-state fire crews in the event of an emergency. Las Vegas Fire Chief Steven Spann said the region is prone to experiencing more wildfires for the next several years, which concerns Romero said the last fire destroyed the area’s watershed.
“This year, specifically, we made a harder push just because of everything that we experienced last year in the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire,” Romero said.
That funding would come from a part of the infrastructure bill or as part of a capital outlay project.
The 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire was the largest and most destructive wildfire in the history of New Mexico, burning more than 340,000 acres between early April and late June.
