Sunland Park Fire strained by rising migrant rescues in heat

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (KTSM) — The Sunland Park Fire Department (SPFD) finds itself extremely busy as temperatures reach dangerous levels – having to respond to heat exposure calls in the desert from migrants crossing the border.

The SPFD has recorded 13 deaths in the desert since March, due to scorching temperatures.

“Once they get through that border wall, it’s a desert, it’s literally desolate. Even if we are very close to the border and civilization, housing, shops or anything else, it is very easy to get lost. And that’s what we’re seeing,” said SPFD Chief Daniel Medrano.

Medrano said most calls related to heat exposure come in during the hottest parts of the day, particularly between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

When the SPFD responds and makes contact with a patient, their primary goal is to cool the patient's body temperature before even taking them to the hospital.

The SPFD often works in conjunction with US Border Patrol agents to conduct these rescues.

People suffering from heat exposure often fall into one of three categories:

1. Fire Cramps
2. Exhaustion of fire
3. Gunshot

They first use a frozen blanket to try to cool the patient, but if their temperature is 104 degrees or higher, they must give them an ice bath to save the patient's life.

These rescues become very common during the summer for SPFD, and they face unique challenges as a fire department.

“Just a week and a half ago, we had four in four to six minutes,” SPFD Battalion Chief Ramiro Rios said. “So, for example, we were here with this patient, and two minutes later we had another patient, and then 2 minutes later another patient, and that's when we had one. “

SPFD has a mutual aid agreement with other border fire departments in the event they have to respond to multiple thermal rescues that strain their resources.

“It requires a lot of resources. If we're looking for a potentially living person in the desert who has been reported in a search and rescue operation, I use my entire team, my entire department to do that,” Medrano said.

The department currently has 25 people.

“It can be very taxing for the guys because they had three ice baths that day on three patients. They flew one out, then ground transported two patients to the hospital. But three of the five victims had life-threatening injuries. So we’re getting to the point where our teams are under a lot of stress and trying to mitigate every incident that we encounter,” Rios said.

The SPFD does not have specialized units like other border region fire departments to respond to such situations and therefore relies on the firefighters it does have.

If a call comes in after sunset, Rios said it's likely a body rather than a person needing to be rescued.