IGNACIO – The time of camping 50 days each year is over for Tony Harwig, the new fire chief for Los Pinos Fire Protection District. Now, he’s ready to shift his focus to moving the district forward after a difficult year.
“Toward the end of my career here, this is what I wanted,” Harwig said. “This is how I wanted to go out – hopefully making a district flourish.”
Harwig will step into the role during a ceremony on July 8 before the district’s board meeting. The position has been vacant since the last chief retired in the middle of an unsuccessful recall effort in late 2018. Now, board and staff are ready to move on with a new chief at the helm.
“I’ve got a lot to learn,” Harwig said. “I’ve got to walk in there with an open mind and learn everything that they do and their challenges as far as that goes.”
Harwig has been in the fire protection service for 36 years, since 1983, and worked for Mercy Paramedics for 14 years. He served as deputy fire chief at Animas Fire and is currently a battalion chief at Durango Fire Protection District. He first became a volunteer firefighter because a neighbor recruited him while he was in college in Durango. One of the most memorable fires of his early career was the Roundhouse Fire, when the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad roundhouse burned on a February night in 1989.
“It was an eerie kind of feeling when you’re looking at the core of Durango, Colorado, burn,” Harwig said.
The Los Pinos board of directors posted the job listing on May 15, with a closing date on May 29. They advertised through Missouri Valley division of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, the Colorado State Fire Chiefs and the district itself.
As one of four final candidates, Harwig went through two interviews, one with a panel of three professional firefighters from other districts and one with the Los Pinos board. Those panels, along with a third made up of staff members who observed the board interview, unanimously chose Harwig as the new chief.
“Tony has so many good qualities about him that his leadership is going to be where people have a chance to grow,” said Larry Behren, current interim fire chief and former district chief for Los Pinos.
Along with a decrease in volunteerism and increasingly dangerous wildland fires, Los Pinos is also responding to more calls.
The district responds to 1,100 calls each year and that number is rising, Harwig said. Los Pinos Fire covers 325 square miles in southeastern La Plata County and parts of Archuleta County, including Ignacio, Arboles, Allison, Oxford and the corridor along La Plata County Road 318. It also covers parts of San Juan County, New Mexico.
“My biggest worry is making sure that those people get an ambulance or an engine when they call for it,” he said. “It’s the second and third call that concerns me.”
Behren’s biggest piece of advice? Be there as a mentor and leader for staff members and learn to say “no.”
“If you don’t learn to say ‘no,’ you’re going to be going to meetings all the time,” Behren said. “Then you don’t have time for your people, you don’t have time for things that you need to make sure of.”
He also said that one of Harwig’s first priorities will be to rally the emergency and nonemergency workers, nurturing a cohesive team in terms of the department’s direction and making sure that everyone feels good where they work.
The position became vacant after a leadership shakeup in November and December 2018. The former deputy chief, Kevin Ratzmann, raised complaints of unethical and potentially fraudulent behavior by the former chief, Tom Aurnhammer. Ratzmann accused board members of retaliation and led an unsuccessful recall effort against them. The board terminated Ratzmann’s contract because of misconduct, according to a news release issued by the board in November 2018.
The board investigated Ratzmann’s complaints, and Aurnhammer tendered his retirement after a discussion with the board about those complaints.
An independent third-party investigation into Ratzmann’s retaliation claim found no evidence that the board retaliated against Ratzmann by not promoting him to chief, according to the release.
The tumult left some firefighters and staff members caught in the middle, and for some, caused a break in trust.
The district went through a lot last year, Harwig said. His goal is to meet with everyone to hear their concerns, true feelings and ideas.
“We’re all a team, and whenever you have a family feud, that always hurts,” he said. “The goal is to get through that and become a family again.”
Los Pinos Fires Chief
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