When the Santa Fe Fire Department Rapid Extraction Module showed up at the Coyote Fire in the Guadalupe Mountains on the New Mexico/Texas border in 2016, nobody knew what it was.
The four-person squad, launched by the city of Santa Fe Fire Department in 2016 and one of a growing number of teams like it in the nation, was on its first fire. Its mandate: to provide fast rescue and medical care to injured firefighters.
But, as members of the team remember it, nobody really understood that.
“People were kind of like, ‘Really, do we need you here? It seems kind of overkill,’ ” Santa Fe Fire Department Lt. Graham Miller said.
The REM stuck around on the fire, helping with medical calls and firefighting, for about a week before officials sent the squad home.
Had the unit stayed around, the crew believes, it could have proved its worth.