Candy Kitchen Fire District #17

Candy Kitchen Fire District #17
Chief Mike Sweet
100_0387
Candy Kitchen Fire Department

The Candy Kitchen Fire District was formed in 1984 with a small station and one old fire truck, which has been since upgraded to the current main station which now houses 4 fire trucks, training room and a small kitchen. In 1989 our first sub-station was build and houses 2 fire trucks.

In 1989 the Sweets had bought property in Candy Kitchen with an Idea to retire there, which became reality in 2009 when they retired and became full time residents of Candy Kitchen. After settling into retirement the Sweets had given thought to joining the Volunteer Fire District after learning of a major fire in Arizona which had begun to threaten residents in New Mexico, although thought that they were to old to out run a fire, non the less become firefighters. It was not until the Sweets attended a monthly fire meeting in May of 2012 that they learned that most of the Volunteers were of the same age, so they decided that they could be part of a family that gives back to the community. In September of 2012 the sweets were called to their first structure fire to relieve the second shift, as the fire was already out and they were awaiting the arrival of the State Fire Marshal, they learned about locating and extinguishing hot-spots, the steps to mop-up staging, and engineering the fire truck, which enlightened then as to the importance of training.

Chief Sweet took the office of Fire Chief in October of 2014, where he has a desire to lower the Fire Districts ISO rating to that of an Class 8 or lower, Ensure that the station and equipment meet NFPA standards, to provide the members with the required training and equipment to allow them to perform their tasks in a safe and effective manner, and to acquire a 40,000 gallon above ground water storage tank with pump, hydrant and a back up generator to allow fire personnel the ability to refill water tankers with needed water for fire ground operations. 


100_0388
100_0389
100_0391
100_0393
100_0394
100_0398
100_0402
100_0404