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Santa Fe County Fire Department seeks volunteers, offers county‑employee training and 20+ week academy
Summary
County fire officials described volunteer roles, an annual career academy, a county‑employee pilot training that provides administrative leave and a July training window, and expanded upfront training to improve retention.
Santa Fe County Fire Department officials said the department is recruiting volunteers, running an annual multi‑week career academy and piloting a county‑employee training program that allows employees to try public‑safety roles during work hours.
Battalion Chief Sal Caputo and Ignacio Lamingas, administrative services manager, described a combination department that includes career and volunteer personnel and said officials are preparing a new academy and other training pathways to attract and retain members. “We run academies every single year,” Caputo said, and the department’s academy “is 20 plus weeks with a lot of certificates, EMS licensing.”
Caputo and Lamingas said the department is expanding upfront functional training so volunteers can begin contributing sooner. That training includes incident rehabilitation (recovery and monitoring of crews on scene), tender shuttle operations (delivering water where hydrants are unavailable), air‑truck support, logistics and administrative assignments. “There’s a job for everybody,” Caputo said, including non‑fireground roles.
The department described a county‑employee offering coordinated with the County Manager’s Office that in a prior year allowed county employees to attend half‑day trainings during work hours and to receive administrative leave for the training period. Officials said the county manager again solicited employee interest this year for a similar program; the transcript noted a July 9 training window tied to this staff initiative and said the application window for employees was open for about two weeks, with a deadline “at the end of this week” from the time of the podcast recording.
Officials emphasized the selection process for the career academy is rigorous and includes physical and written testing; they said some volunteers later transition into paid or regional positions and that prior employee pilots produced active members. The department said expanded early training and clear, useful assignments improves retention because volunteers feel valuable sooner.
To get involved, officials said prospective volunteers and county employees should contact the Santa Fe County Fire Department to learn about academy dates, volunteer screening and initial functional training offerings. The department said members can perform rehab, tenders, air operations, office work and other tasks and reiterated that cardiovascular events remain a leading cause of line‑of‑duty deaths, making incident rehab an important volunteer function.
Caputo and Lamingas encouraged residents and county employees to consider volunteering or to pursue the academy if they are able; the department said it hires from its volunteer ranks and that the combination model offers multiple entry points.
