A fire chief from New Mexico was arrested at the scene of a fire he was commanding on Tuesday and charged with disorderly conduct. The Sante Fe New Mexican reports that 53-year-old Eddie Velarde of the Velarde VFD in Rio Arriba County called in multiple police and fire agencies to a several acre brush fire and erroneously claimed people were trapped in buildings. Here's more from the paper's Geoff Grammer:
"He was calling for a mass evacuation (of surrounding residents) with all these agencies responding under the false belief that this was a much larger emergency," (Sheriff's Department spokesman Jake) Arnold said. "Numerous times at the scene, he was yelling about people being trapped when the fire was nowhere near any structure."
Lt. Adam Archuleta, according to Arnold, eventually stepped in and told Velarde he was taking over the situation, and the small grass fire was put out within 10 minutes. The arrest, sheriff's officials say, was the only way to stop Velarde from continuing to cause so much disorder at the scene of a minor fire.
The fire covered an estimated 2 to 3 acres, destroyed two abandoned structures and damaged the exterior of a third structure. No injuries were reported, and the cause of the blaze is unknown.
