Eugene Garcia serves as UWC-USA’s head of security. More importantly, over the last two weeks he has been the incident commander for the UWC-USA wildfire command team. He has provided leadership for our school, supervised the evacuation, and has been the liaison with state and local fire officials – and he has also evacuated from his own property north of Montezuma.
Gene owns 45 acres in El Oro, NM which has been threatened by the Calf Canyon Fire since late April. With a background in law enforcement, Gene gets updates on his property from friends who are firefighters. He has heard that the fire has come within about a half a mile of his home. The area is under a mandatory evacuation order and he was able to evacuate along with his chickens and goats safely.
He is still deeply concerned that the buildings may not survive the next few days as the wind continues to shift direction almost daily.
At this point there are no more measures he can take to save his property and he understands that his buildings may be a total loss. Coming to work every day, supporting the students and staff, and working with local fire officials has been helpful for Gene – it keeps him from dwelling on concerns for his ranch.
The entire community is deeply grateful to Gene for his dedication to the school and our students.