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
April 14, 2024 Training with Fort David VFD
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
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.
June 11, 2023 Training - Property Wildfire Assessment
The June 11, 2023 training was Learning about Property Wildfire Assessment. Stewart Luke Billingsley for sharing your time and experience with our firemen. Thank you to Susan Kindle Laskoskie, Jan VanLiere, and Edward Eaton for allowing us to use your properties as a classroom! We learned a lot today and hopefully will be able to provide this as a service to our community. Thank you to FDVFD fireman, John Morris, for joining us.
On Sunday June 11, starting around 1:30 pm, Stewart Luke Billingsley taught our firemen the proper way to assess mitigation done around peoples’ homes. Chief Edna Queen sought out several properties where owners who would like to have their property assess as part of the training. The instruction and training did not involve cutting or removing limbs, instead the firemen learned what would be needed to meet the criteria for proper mitigation. Once Stewart feels we have had enough training to go out on our own, the Chief will offer this service from our department to the community.
Thank you to Susan Kindle Laskoskie, Jan VanLiere, and Edward Eaton for allowing us to use your properties as a classroom! We learned a lot today and hopefully will be able to provide this as a service to our community. Thank you to FDVFD fireman, John Morris, for joining us.
Thank you, Edna Queen – DMPOAVFD, Inc. Fire Chief
June 3, 2023 Highway Clean Up
On June 3, 2023, The DMR Firefighters, Support Team members and friends all gathered at the mailboxes at the Ranch Road and Highway 166. Ed Eaton, in charge of the clean ups, said they had a great turn out even thought there was not much trash i our designated area. Thanks to all that came out! Oh, most of the volunteers had already taken off on their designated locations before this photo was taken!
May 27, 2023 DMRVFD Texas Luau!
April 8, 2023 Highway Clean-Up
On April 8, 2023, DMRVFD Firemen, Support Team Members and friends volunteered to clean up our section of Highway 166. Thanks to all that helped out!
Ed Eaton – Highway Clean-Up Coordinator
March 30-April 2, 2023 Mile High Wildfire Academy
On Mar 30 thru April 2, 2023, Ed Eaton, Kevin Honeycutt, Rhonda Honeycutt and Jan Van Liere attended the Mile High Wildfire Academy in Fort Davis, TX and were certified in Basic Firefighting Training. This course covered basic incident management, firefighting techniques, suppression equipment, safety, strategy/tactics and basic fire behavior in regards to Weather, Topography and Fuel. Practical skills were conducted the final day of training and included deployment of a fire shelter in under 25 seconds and cutting a fire line as a team.
Rhonda Honeycutt
Thanks to Rhonda, Wendi, Dale P & Jan for all of the photos!
Wendi Bates, Dale Pilcher, and Aaron Rasbach attended the BEAST class during the 22nd Mile High Wildland Academy sponsored and hosted by the Fort Davis Volunteer Fire Department and the Texas A&M Forest Service this spring. BEAST, Basic Engine and Suppression Tactics, introduced students to basic wildland engine suppression tactics in both the rural and wildland urban interface settings. Students were also introduced to basic engine terminology, structure triage, hose operations, and foam and water use practices to optimize the water available. The course consisted of 8 hours of classroom studies and 8 hours of field work. During the field work students applied their learned knowledge in drafting water, trouble shooting pump issues, laying out simple and progressive hose lays, and conducting a mock response to a small wildland fire utilizing a 3 man crew.
Wendi Bates – Fireman
March 26, 2023 Training
Training on March 26th was a real treat. Retired DMR fireman and former Jeff Davis Co Fire Marshall, Stewart Billingsley, came to give a presentation on what you need to have in you go bag. A go bag for those who do not know, is a day pack, fanny pack, or what ever size pack you want that you can grab and go in the event of an emergency. In this case, it’s what a fireman may need while deployed to fight fire.
You never know when you are toned out to a fire whether you will be gone an hour, two hours or all day. It is a good thing to have a few items that fit into an easy to carry bag that may proved relief from unexpected situations. Whether it’s a small personal first aid kit, snacks, sunscreen, a bandana, tweezers a multipurpose tool, compass, water, or even very importantly toilet paper! This bag can be thrown in the fire truck as you roll out and should not take much room. It can be carried with you if you are required to be in the field away from your fire truck. Stewart has over 50 years of experience as a fire fighter and these were suggestion gleaned from a life time of fighting fire. Stewart has a great way of engaging the firemen with accounts of events that happened to him over these many years. It was fun and informative. Fort Davis fireman, John Morris, also came to hear Stewart’s presentation. It was good to have a fireman from the Fort Davis fire department come join us up here.
Afterwards I decided to help our firemen that were going to be in taking classes during the Mile High Fire Academy hosted by Fort Davis Fire Department March 30 – April 2 in Fort Davis. Our newest firemen are all taking S130- S190 Basic Fire Fighter Training. Having taken that course myself what feels like many moons ago, I knew what they would be facing. So, I went over some thing I knew would be covered on their final day. How to use a drip torch, how to use a Fusee, (a type of flare), and deployment of an emergency fire shelter. I wanted to give our firemen an advantage I did not have, in that they would be familiar with these items beforehand. We did not get to train with the drip torches and Fusee as much as I was hoping for, as it turned very windy as the afternoon progress. I did have each of them use a drip torch on the dirt in front of the station with plenty of water on standby just in case. We were going to deploy fire shelters but ran out of time. Thankfully we had done training on them a few weeks ago.
Fire Chief Edna Queen
Photos by Rhonda Honeycutt
March 19, 2023 Brush Pile Burned
On Saturday, March 18, 2023, DMRVFD Firemen and Support Team members gathered at the fire station to make preparations for Sunday’s scheduled brush pile burn. The drip torches were filled and tested and everything was working great.
On Sunday, at 6:00 am, everyone again gathered at the fire station to gear up for the brush pile burn. As our firemen attempted to light the fire, the drip torches would not light so we used up a bunch of old Fusee flares! The red glow was cool. Even with all of the fuel added, the brush was still very green and covered with ice. Ignition took a little longer than I wanted but it did catch in the end.
It was a very long day, with firemen standing by the fire the entire day. At the end of the day, we were concerned about the increase in wind speed so the DMRVFD extinguished the last of the brush pile fire. The driver, Rhonda Honeycutt, was learning to drive the BIG truck, with the help of Assistant Fire Chief Stacey Rasbach. New firemen Kevin Honeycutt and Ed Eaton got to train with the hose and nozzle.
At the brush fire, we were missing firemen Dale Pilcher and Wendi Bates, but did have Junior Fireman Naomi! Five woman and six men are in our department. We are always looking for volunteers!
Edna Queen – DMRVFD Fire Chief
Thanks to Edna Queen, Jan Vanliere and Ralf Patterson for photos!
March 12, 2023 Training
Training on Sunday March 12, started with an after-action review of the Solar Park fire. It is important to hold a discussion on what went right, what went wrong, and how can we improve. It had been two weeks since that fire so it was interesting to hear the differences on what people remember.
Afterword I held a practice on how to deploy a fire shelter. I have 11 firemen enrolled in the Mile High Academy Fire School hosted by Fort Davis Fire Department March 30 – April 2. Most are taking S-120 / S190 Basic Firefighter training. I am trying to give them a leg up by have the shelter training. During class they will be required to deploy a fire shelter in under 30 seconds. When I took the class, I had never seen a fire shelter and I will admit it took me 3 tries. By having this training before they head to class, they will have a good understanding on how it works. It has been three years since this class has been offered. Most of our newest firemen have the advantage in that they have worked a grass land fire already. Half the battle is learning the new terminology. I have made the workbooks available for our firemen to review beforehand. I hope that by doing this, it will make taking that class a little less intimidating.
Edna Queen, DMR VFD Fire Chief
Photos by Edna Queen
February 25, 2023 Highway Cleanup
On Saturday morning, February 25, 2023, 13 people showed up to pick up trash from our section of Highway 166. The volunteers were comprised of firemen, Support Team members and friends of the DMRVFD. Thanks to all the volunteers that helped on this cold morning!
Ed Eaton
February 17, 2023 Work Day at the Fire Station
You never know what’s happening at the fire station. Jan VanLiere and Dennis Fetters are putting together a new storage cabinet. Marvin Voiers is installing the radio in our new truck. Pam Edwards is cleaning and organizing bay 5.
Edna Queen – DMRVFD Fire Chief
January 14, 2023 Work on Remodeling the bathroom in the Fire Station
Edna Queen - Fire Chief
January 8, 2023 Training
Sunday January 8th, 2023 brought the first training session of the new year. We had 100% attendance! First on the agenda was lots of catching up on news, upcoming events and paper work. We have not had a real meeting since November so lots to catch up on. The spring Mile High Fire Academy hosted by Fort Davis Fire Department has been rescheduled from February 23 – 26 to March 30, 2023 – April 2, 2023. I do hope that is will not mean some people can no longer attend. I do have 12 firemen scheduled to attend the FD fire school. I have 3 firemen that have requested to be sent to College Station to their Spring Fire Academy, March 6th – 10th, 2023. I have enrolled two and will have the last one done this week.
I asked the firemen to please update their Texas Emergency Services Retirement System paperwork. Those who have not filled out the TESRS form 502, to please do so then. I made a chart to save everyone’s sizes for pants, shirt, shoes and gloves. Just in case I have to order something for them for fire school. Also made sure I have PPE for our 4 support team members that are planning on attending the FD fire school.
Fire training for the day consisted of this scenario, what would they do if I or any other of the most experienced and senior firemen were not available. I want them to be comfortable with the process of arriving to a fire, doing a site rep, calling in resources if needed, then starting the pumps and fighting fire all on their own. More than half of our department are new-ish firemen and they have not had enough opportunity to fight fire by themselves. You never know when things happen and neither myself, or Ken, Bert, Aaron or Billy are available to take the lead. I need them ready just in case something happens. I was so pleased with how everyone performed. We started with the UTVs then on to B71 and finally the 5 tons. I sent teams of two to a “fire” marked with flagging and they had to go through all the procedures. Afterward we practiced accessing water from our rain catchment 3000 gallon tanks so that if we needed to use that water, they would know which pump they will need as well as hose attachments. Thank you to Aaron and Bert, they have the most experience with pumping water from those tanks, they were excellent at instructing the other firemen. We will keep practicing this scenario as well as radio training until everyone feels confident in what they are doing.
Edna Queen
Fire Chief – DMPOAVFD, INC
