“A community in crisis” as negotiations over Deming firefighter wages continue

DEMING, New Mexico -- Negotiations over Deming firefighter wages continue almost a month after two-thirds of the department put in their two weeks notices.

On Jan, 19. 14 firefighters handed in their letters of resignation. Nearly a month on, four have walked away. The other ten are holding out hope that the city will increase their pay so they can continue doing the job they love and protect their community.

If everyone left, the department would have been down to just 7 firefighters who double as paramedics to protect the entire city of Deming.

Victor Salas is one of the four firefighters who left, he told ABC-7 it was by far one of the toughest things he's ever done.

“I left the department all smiles like guys everything's going to be alright, we’re going to see each other," Salas said. "I got home and then I cried like I have never cried before. My wife had to hold me up.”

A firefighter is the only thing Salas can ever remember wanting to be.

"I’ll never forget when I got my first bike. On purpose, I would release the air from my tires and walk my bike to the fire department just to have those guys fill up my tires and at the same time I would just gaze at the trucks," Salas said.

It was his childhood dream - and now it's a dream he had to cut short because he says he was being overworked, risking his life constantly and getting underpaid for it. Salas told ABC-7 it was only exacerbated during the COVID-19 when he was constantly exposing himself to the virus while treating patients and then taking those risks home to his family too.

“All that and then you come to glimpse and realize you’re only making 50 to 60 more cents than minimum wage," Salas said. "It does come to the point where you have to ask yourself is what I’m doing worth it? Where does that line cross from doing it as something honorable and noble to getting abused and taken advantage of?"

When Salas left he was making $12.15/hr and also working two other jobs - he started his own window washing business and was a paramedic at Elite Medical Transport.

Salas told ABC-7 at least 80% of the Deming Fire Department works multiple jobs to make ends meet.

The community is doing its best to support the department. In January the community held a rally in town demanding higher wages for their firefighters - as of now, to no avail.

"It's long overdue that they get what they deserve," Heather Gomez a wife of a firefighter said. "They do a big public service to us here in our community and they deserve to be paid for that."

Salas told ABC-7 that the minimum they're asking for $15/hr. He said the firefighters deserve more than that, but it would be a start and at least show them that the city appreciates what they do day in, day out.

Back in July of last year, the city increased their wages by 6.5% which brought Salas up to $12.15/hr. According to Gomez the best the city is offering right now is a 2% increase and then another 4% increase come July. These increases would bring Salas' pay for example to nearly $12.90/hr - still more than $2 under what they're asking for.

Gomez told ABC-7 percentage increases don't mean much if the starting wage is so little, to begin with. Instead, she says, what matters is that final dollar amount.

"They don't seem to care about our firefighters, and they don't seem to want to negotiate in good faith and give them what they deserve, you know they just state that they're [the firefighters] not in their budget," Gomez said.

The stalemate is causing concern around the community of Deming.

"I feel like we have a community crisis right now," Gomez said.

During the second week of February, there was a period of 21 hours where there were five fires in Deming.

If the department is out fighting a fire, then Elite Medical Transport is called for any medical emergency. Gomez told ABC-7 they're a great company but they're also understaffed, not to mention a lot of their employees are Deming firefighters who use the company as a second job. She also said they usually only have one truck operating at a time.

This means if there is more than one medical emergency at a time, according to Gomez, "the community is in a lot of trouble."