New Santa Fe County fire chief started as teenage volunteer, rose through ranks

Dec. 5—Jacob Black's passion for life and public service is evident from the moment you meet him. His glassy blue eyes tell stories of lives saved, people lost and a community whose support helped propel him to the heights he has reached within the Santa Fe County Fire Department.

Black, 36, was announced as outgoing chief Jackie Lindsey's successor on Nov. 18 following a decadeslong rise in the ranks of the county fire department. He assumed the role Saturday.

"It was incredibly humbling to be given the opportunity to serve in this capacity. It's an incredible honor and privilege, and I was just overwhelmed and excited at this opportunity," Black said.

While he most recently served as the county's assistant fire chief of support services for about three years, Black's journey as a firefighter began in 2003 when he started volunteering with the Agua Fria Fire District at age 17.

He wanted to join the U.S. Air Force, impassioned like so many others after the tragedy of 9/11. However, as a teenager finishing his junior year of high school, a friend and volunteer at the Agua Fria Fire District suggested Black do the same to get his foot in the door and gain valuable life experience before enlisting.

Black still had his sights set on the Air Force when he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a form of cancer that he says had a survival rate of about 60 percent at the time of his diagnosis.

He continued to volunteer in between bouts of chemotherapy and a couple of big surgeries. Black said the volunteer fire chief at that time, Charlie Velarde, took him under his wing and helped him develop into a true firefighter.

"During that time, the fire department became a passion of mine," Black said. "It became a sense of purpose; it became something that drove me to be better; it became a distraction."

His weekly chemotherapy sessions rendered Black unable to respond to calls, but he continued to serve his department by washing trucks and checking on equipment.

Black's voice softened and crackled as he talked about how much his first battle with cancer impacted him. The tough times and rough chemotherapy sessions helped give him a sense of grit, which Black said helped transform his worldview.

Whether you're responding to a call in the blistering cold — literally freezing to a fellow firefighter — or doing chest compressions for 40 minutes to save somebody's life, Black said firefighters have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

"It was [my battle with cancer] that I think develops that grit. That transfers over to life, it transfers over to being a firefighter," Black said. "I know that there's going to be times serving as the fire chief that there's going to be really hard times ... but it's that grit, it's that resilience that I believe that I've developed that will help carry me through that."

Black's cancer returned about five years later, throwing him into a second battle with the disease. However, he said his second bout was fought with a number of surgeries rather than chemotherapy. He said his journey to becoming fire chief would not have been possible without the hard work of the medical professionals who helped him through his two battles with cancer.

Black's selection as fire chief took about a month and a half after Lindsey's retirement was announced in October. Deputy County Manager Elias Bernardino said after a nationwide search with about a dozen applicants, two rounds of interviews and a period of time for County Manager Greg Shaffer to "marinate" on the decision, Black's passion and love for the fire department stood out.

Bernardino recounted a ride-along he did with the county fire department on March 2 when Santa Fe police officer Robert Duran and retired Las Vegas, N.M., firefighter Frank Lovato died following a police chase on Interstate 25. He remembers seeing Black working to extricate Lovato's body from his car.

"Seeing him in action really helps me understand just how much love he has for the work that people do out in the field," Bernardino said. "That's really what we need in this department is to have [an] in-depth understanding of what the field crew needs."

He added Black's ascendance from 17-year-old volunteer to chief is valuable to the department.

"We now have a fire chief that went through the ranks of this department, from volunteer all the way to fire chief," Bernardino said. "That shows to not only the community, but to staff as well, that there is a [viable] career ladder."

Black praised Lindsey for her efforts in laying a foundation to bring the department "together as one" while also pinpointing issues the agency will need to tackle to improve. One of those is staffing at volunteer districts.

While the fire department is at a 16.54 percent vacancy rate for its full-time positions, according to data provided by the county, Black said a high priority for him will be to boost the number of volunteer firefighters throughout the county's 14 fire districts.

The new chief said he hopes to incorporate "different recruiting mechanisms" to target different age groups to volunteer and set up systems to ensure proper coverage and responses from district stations. However, he added national requirements to volunteer have changes drastically since his time in the Agua Fria Fire District.

"When I started volunteering, it was a quick, easy 40-hour course ... and you were set, ready to go, and you could go into a burning building. Now there's requirements from outside of our department — national requirements — that basically say a new recruit needs a minimum of 240 hours of training in their first year," Black said. "We're trying to find avenues to facilitate that and not let that be a deterrent for people to come and volunteer."

The department is working on a hybrid model to help streamline the training process. Black said the idea is to have trainees complete much of the work virtually before training in person one weekend a month for four months.

He added the county is also looking to increase staffing for its six regional fire stations — manned by volunteers who live within city limits or in other counties — by applying for grants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Recruitment in 2022, however, needs to adapt to the needs of different generations.

"How do we create an environment that we can help the Gen Zers that are in their early teens, late teens, early 20s, and have somebody that's in the baby boomer era and ... create a quality of life for them?" Bernardino asked.

Black said changes need to be made to foster such an environment but zoomed in on how the department can offer different roles to volunteers of different ages.

"If we have someone who's retired who says, 'You know what, I don't really feel like throwing on 70 pounds of gear and hauling [a] 150 pound hose into a building to go put a fire out.' ... They might be able to meet all of the requirements to drive an apparatus to our fire, to refill air cylinders, to bring water to us, to still be a meaningful contributor to providing services to our citizens," Black said.

He added in spite of generational gaps at the department and different roles volunteers may serve as a result, everyone's mission under his leadership will continue to be guiding those in Santa Fe County through potentially life-changing moments.

"We do so much more [than just providing emergency services]. We get to see life as it enters the world ... as babies are born. We have the honor to serve families as they're saying goodbye to their loved ones, and it's that I want to take to our department," Black said. "We're one team, and everything that we do should come back to that."