ACTIVITIES
On Saturday night the men and women of the DMRVFD hosted a Chili Cook-off and 70s themed dance fund raiser in our fire station. Our department had been hard at work giving our station a good spring cleaning and we were ready to show our hard work off to the community. We had a great turn out. We had 14 entries, 6 Texas Style Chile and 8 anything goes style chili. In the Texas style Chili , no beans, we had a tie for first place! We had a taste off and Jan Van Lier was declared the winner with Toi Fisher coming in 2nd. In the anything goes Chili Silvia Nieto came in first and Stacey Rasbach came in 2nd. We had so much cornbread brought by our support team and firemen we could have had a cornbread competition as well! The overall quality of the chili was sooo good we had very little left! Then there was the desserts! Cakes, cookies, brownies, ice cream! After all that great food there was the great music of the 70s to dance to.
Thank you to everyone who made this event such a great success! We have a great team of men and women that make up the DMRVFD! Thank you to those of you that got into the sprit of the 70s and came in costumes. It was a hoot.
See you next at the DMPOA annual meeting Saturday June 25th. The DMRVFD will be providing the meat we ask the community to bring the sides. We will be serving BBQ brisket, chicken and sausage free of charge. Food service will start at 5:00 pm.
As always stay safe and be vigilant,
Edna Queen
DMPOAVFD, INC.
Fire Chief
Activities
December 14, 2024 Annual Chief's Christmas Dinner
The December 14, 2024 Chief’s Annual Christmas Dinner was a great success. Everyone was treated to a wonderful meal. It was also an opportunity to see folks we only see once a year and to meet new neighbors. Thanks to the DMRVFD firemen, Support Team members and property owners who made the event possible.
(The photos in the below slide show can be seen in larger format in the DMRVFD Facebook site)
December 7, 2024 - DMRVFD Participates in Fort Davis Christmas Parade
On Saturday December 7, 2024, the DMRVFD attended the parade of lights in Fort Davis. We decorated B72 with way too many lights. Should have had candy. Our position was last in line. Ed, Judy, and Virgil represented the DMRVFD and spread some holiday cheer.
November 21, 2024 Highway Cleanup
On Thursday, November 21, 2024, volunteers and friends of the DMRVFD cleaned up the DMRVFD portion of Highway 166. Thanks to everyone for helping keep the DMR clean.
Edward Eaton
Radio Training at the DMRVFD Fire Station
On Sunday, October 13, 2024, the DMRVFD conducted training on the use of radios. It was led by our DMRVFD communications officer, Marvin Voiers and retired Fire Marshall / fireman and radio technician Stewart Billingsley. Anyone interested in learning about how to communicate within our community with small hand-held radios was invited to attend the class. The training was free and open to any DMR resident. We had a good turnout including eight ham radio operators. In an emergency it may be the only way to get any information. Marvin programed new radios some of the attendees had purchased. This was not a HAM radio class and attendees not holding a HAM radio license will be able to communicate on the emergency frequencies. This is a network, GMARS, that we can use in the DMR. Thank to all who attended today’s class. Please consider joining us.
Thank you,
Edna Queen – DMRVFD Fire Chief
October 11, 2024 DMRVFD Participation at Fort Davis Elementary School
As an outreach program and in conjunction with National Fire Prevention week, the Fort Davis fire department brought their firetrucks and equipment to the elementary school. This year the DMR fire department was asked to participate. We were able to bring our brush truck to the event. Also included were the Fort Davis Mt Medics who brought an ambulance. It was a wonderful opportunity for all three departments to work together to teach our future firefighters and medics about what it is that we do. The children were very excited to watch and get some hands-on experience. They got hands on demonstrations of the brush truck and fire engine and the inside of an ambulance. The children were really excited to meet all of us and to ask lots of questions. Hopefully we left a good impression on the them. They are our future fire fighters and medics! Thank you to Fort Davis Fire Chief Pat Olivas, EMS Director of the Fort Davis Mt Medics, Peggy Motes and DMRVFD Fire Chief Edna Queen for making this happen. Thank you Dale L Pilcher and Edward Eaton for representing the DMRVFD.
September 28, 2024 Firewise Presentation, Mitigation and Lunch
On September 28, 2024, the DMRVFD hosted a Firewise presentation and mitigation around the Community center, shop and fire station. Afterwards, the participants enjoyed a wonderful lunch. Congratulations to Rob Lavigne who won the drawing for the weedeater.
July 10, 2024 Control Burn of the Community Brush Pile
Early this morning the DMRVFD did a control burn of the community brush pile. Teams handling fuel, lighters and safety and poof this brush fire was lit! Thanks to everyone involved into today’s work.
Rhonda Brown Honeycutt
Thanks to Edna Queen, Rhonda Honeycutt and Dale L. Pilcher for their photos!
July 6, 2024 Fort Davis Parade
The DMRVFD sent two brush trucks to town to be in the 4th of July parade! Thank you to firefighters, Dale Pilcher, Art Fitzgerald, and Ray Queen. It was good to see so many people along the parade route. Sorry I ran out of candy so quickly. I had 15 pounds!
Edna Queen – Chief DMRVFD
Photos by Carolyn Nored Miller and Edna Queen
June 29, 2024 Annual Dinner
Our Annual DMRVFD and DMPOA meetings were held at the firehouse on June 29, 2024. After the meetings, the annual dinner was held and was well attended! We had over 70 people turn out for the dinner which included smoked brisket, sausage and chicken cooked and served by Jonathan Clark. The DMPOA and DMRVFD split the cost for the meat and attendees were gracious enough to bring sides and desserts to share with their neighbors. It was great to see old friends and make new ones. Thank you to everyone that helped to make this event such a success.
Edna Queen – DMRVFD Fire Chief
May 25, 2024 "Ponderosa" DMRVFD Annual Fundraiser
Our Annual Fundraiser was a complete success! We had 60 – 65 people turn out, many of them newcomers. It was great to see old friends and make new ones. Thank you to everyone that helped to make this event such a success.
Edna Queen – DMRVFD Fire Chief
Below are just some of the many photographs taken May 25, 2024 at the DMRVFD Annual Fundraiser dinner!
April 27, 2024 Firewise Program
Thank you to all who came to our Firewise Program today. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped cook, clean, set up and clean up after the event. We could not have done this without you all.
Rhonda Honeycutt
April 19, 2024 Training
Today DMRVFD Assistant Chief Kevin Honeycutt led the training on several scenarios including,
- Filling the helicopter dip tank from the rain catchment storage tanks,
- Drafting water from the dip tank to the 2500 gal T71 firefighting water tender and,
- Drafting water from available pond water (i.e. when ponds are full; we used a water trough to replicate) to our fire trucks.
Also, in a joint effort with Fort Davis VFD fireman, Arno and his fellow fire fighters Sid, Josh and Peter, we were able to train as a team. Thanks to all who attended today’s training.
April 11, 2024 Dip Tank Repair
On April 11, 2024, the DMR fire department worked together with the road crew to install a liner on the rock tank by the road on Yellowknife. Head of the road crew, Darrel Fellers determined that a liner would be the best option for long term repair of the tank. Thank you to firemen, Ed Eaton, Kevin Honeycutt, Dale Pilcher, Ray Queen, Wendi Bates and Rhonda Honeycutt for all your help. Also thank you to Fireman /road crew employee Art Fitzgerald and road crew member Robert Lavigne for getting this done. Thank you to Bob Kincaid for all your help. You’re on vacation and we put you to work! It was a long day but the weather was perfect and we had plenty of hands-on board. Thank you to Rhonda and Wendi for helping me feed the team. The tank is full now and it looks great. There were even a few canyon tree frogs that got washed in; they made it out safely. One more step in being as prepared as possible for this fire season.
April 6, 2024 Highway Cleanup
Today we had a good group, 13 people in all. Thanks to everyone that came out and braved the wind!
Edward Eaton
February 19, 2024, High Meadow Dip Tank Clean Up
Assistant Chief Kevin Honeycutt, firemen Ed Eaton, Ray Queen and firemen and road crew employee Art Fitzgerald are helping Darrel Fellers empty and clean out the dip tank on High Meadow. I wish they had a giant vacuum to suck all that muck out!
DMRVFD Edna Queen – Chief
February 10, 2024 Highway Clean Up
We had a nice group of people turn out to clean our section of Highway 166, 8 people in all, well 7.5 counting Virgil. Thanks to all who helped.
Ed Eaton
December 16, 2023 Chief's Annual Christmas Dinner
November 18, 2023 Workday at the Fire Station
Thanks to everyone who pitched in this morning on November 18, 2023. We were able to resolve two big issues at the department. These guys, along with Dale L Pilcher diagnosing the issue, completed the pump repair and B72 is ready to rock! A new heater for Bay 5 was also installed. Great teamwork!
Highway Cleanup
It’s was a very good collection day. Three bags of trash! The volunteers happily covered 4 miles of highway with the promise of a slice of fresh pumpkin loaf.. .
Ed Eaton – Highway Cleanup Coordinator
November 4, 2023 Spaghetti Dinner
What a fun time we had this evening! We had 15 spaghetti sauce entries. Cindy Davis came in first, Melanie and Matt Blackman came in 2nd. Mike Fryer won one raffle and Rhonda Brown Honeycutt won the other. Cindy Davis won best costume woman, Ed Eaton best costume men. Thank you to those few that still had the energy to dance!
Edna Queen – DMRVFD Fire Chief
Winners of the Best Costumes were Cindy Davis and Ed Eaton
Thanks to Edna Queen and Rhonda Honeycutt for the additional photos!
October 7, 2023 Firewise Event
On Saturday October 7 the DMRVFD hosted our Texas A & M Regional Fire Coordinator, Joe Mike Pasqua as our guest speaker for our annual Firewise event. I want to thank everyone that attended. We had lots of new faces this year and some familiar faces we had not seen in a long time. Thank you to the two Fort Davis Firemen that came up to attend. Mr. Pasqua’s presentation was thoughtful and informative.
Thank you to our support and firefighters that made this event look effortless, when we all know it takes a lot of work to put these events together.
To all our community members, please remember to turn in your mitigation hours by November 10th. Whether you use our Firewise forms, or just use a piece of blank paper, every hour you document is important. If you made any improvements to your home, i.e. a new metal roof, replaced siding, or decking, all of those costs are important to document. How many hours of tree trimming, weed cutting, mowing, and raking all needs to be counted.
Thank you all for all you do,
Edna Queen
Fire Chief
DMPOAVFD, INC
September 30, 2023 Annual Mitigation
On Saturday, September 30, 2023, the DMRVFD conducted it’s Annual Mitigation event. The purpose of the event was to eliminate fuels for fire, such as tall grass and low tree limbs around the Community Center, fire station and surrounding property. This area is used as a staging area when needed in case of fire. After the work was completed, the DMRVFD served up a terrific lunch for all of the workers. Thanks to all who turned out to protect our community.
September 18, 2023 - Brush Pile Burned
On Monday, September 18, 2023, our DMRVFD Fire Fighters, Support Team Members and volunteers burned the brush pile. Thanks to all of the people who got up early to do this. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!
September 9, 2023 Highway Clean Up
On Saturday, September 9, 2023, volunteers from the DMRVFD met to clean up trash from our section og Highway 166. Our hard working team did a great job!
Ed Eaton
June 9 & 10, 2023 Smoke in the Mountains BBQ Competition and Fundraiser
The Smoke in the Mountain BBQ competition and fundraiser was held on the area around the court house in Fort Davis. Proceeds from the event benefited the four Jeff Davis County fire departments and EMS. This included the DMRVFD. Our station was represented by numerous members of our Fire Department, Support Team members and friends! Per Stewart Billingsley, who took and posted many photos of the event on Facebook, there were at approximately 60 BBQ teams. During the cookoff, many other fun events took place around the Courthouse lawn in the shade of the beautiful trees. The event turned out to be a great success and we will see in the coming days or weeks how much was raised for the First Responders of this community. Thanks to all that put in so much work to make this a success.
