On March 17, 1950 the Patagonia Volunteer Fire Association (PVF), under the leadership of Acting Chief Woody Gatlin, held a St. Patrick’s Ball in the new high school in Patagonia, the first dance held by the firemen since the end of World War II. Almost everyone in town came and celebrated the happy event.
Frank “Frankie” Lamma became chief in 1953 and continued wearing the chief’s hat until 1970. Frankie was born in Hermosillo, Mexico in 1912 and moved with his mother to Patagonia in 1913. She married Joseph Lamma in 1917, and the couple raised Frankie as their son. He graduated from Patagonia High School and then worked for, and became partner to, Ray “Buck” Blabon at the Eastside Garage. In 1948 he was appointed one of five aldermen in newly incorporated Patagonia, and in 1950 was elected the town’s second mayor.
In the early ’50s he and Bob Haverty bought the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot to use as a warehouse. The pair remained “unofficial station agents” until 1962. Lamma was a member of the Rotary Club, which supported moving the Depot building 45 feet east to make way for Highway 82 improvements. Lamma remained a member of the PVF company until he died in 1986.
During the time Lamma was chief there were at least two significant fires in the Patagonia area. In 1956 the Curly Horse Ranch main ranch house caught fire. The firemen drove the 25 miles from the station to the ranch, but the house was fully engulfed when they arrived and was a total loss. Twenty acres of grassland burned, but the firemen prevented the fire from further spreading to other buildings on the property and nearby ranches.
The second major blaze, caused by careless picnickers, occurred in 1969 at the Nature Conservancy Preserve on Sonoita Creek. The fire burned 60 acres and destroyed several beloved cottonwoods. Around 200 spectators were encouraged to pitch in to help fight the fire, but only two Patagonia youths, Bob Lenon and Dave Sardi, who brought their own shovels, joined the firefighters. The fire was contained by seven that evening although there were still some smoldering remnants the next morning.
“From the ’50s to the present day, there are probably two to five structure fires a year in Patagonia,” said Bill Bergier, PVF chief from 1970-1991. “Most of our calls are medical.”
Bergier is a native Patagonian. “My family was always from here,” he said. “My dad was from here. I go back five or six generations.
“I came back from the Navy in 1970. A teacher up in one of the canyons became overcome by heat, and I saved his life, receiving a letter of commendation from the Town of Patagonia. Then the fire department, which was really a bunch of old guys who did their thing, wanted me to become a member. I was only 22, the youngest member, when I joined. Within two or three months they voted me in as Chief, and I was Chief until 1991 when as a member of the Navy Reserves, I deployed to the Gulf.
“The only truck the fire department had when I joined in 1970 was the 1943 Ford,” said Bergier. “The old 1914 [truck] was parked behind my parents’ house, and I used to play on it. Lee Gordon came to town in 1976, and we got the truck running for the Bicentennial. Lee was a wheelwright, and he made the steering wheel, a beautiful wood steering wheel.
“Toward 1980, we acquired a yellow-green Seagraves from Drexel Heights in Tucson. In the late ’80s I used to go to Fort Huachuca a lot for work, and there I found a GMC stainless steel tanker, a water truck, and bought it for $10. The guys here rebuilt it. This truck was a money maker, because it went to the State fires and the department got reimbursed [for its use]. PVFR has since sold it.”
By 1988, the department had four trucks: the ’43 Ford, the Seagraves, the tanker, and a pickup truck (later a Suburban) used as a medical truck.
Patagonia had Emergency Medical Services (EMS) before Nogales, according to Bergier.
“There were two or three EMT’s in the ’80s,” he said, “and for a time, about six years, there were just two of us who covered the shifts. John Spitler covered the days, and when I got back from work in Sierra Vista I did the nights—from six until eight the next morning, seven days a week. I liked to call the people in the department the ‘meds’ and the ‘wrenches.’ The guys whose focus was the trucks were the wrenches, and we who focused on medical care were the meds.
“Another thing I did before Nogales was to supply our care packs for the trucks with oxygen. I got a compressor from Fort Huachuca and then built a cascade system for filling the tanks. We were self-sufficient.”
In ’89 or ’91 the group called Red Mountain Rescue, comprised of five or six EMT’s, became a part of PVF. The new association was renamed PVFR: Patagonia Volunteer Fire and Rescue.
In 1977-78, the first section of the present day fire station was built on the north side of the property at 142 N 3rd Avenue, behind the hotel. “We did it ourselves,” said Bergier. “All the labor was donated.”
There were private donations, and the Town donated two thousand dollars. Deals for construction materials of wood and concrete blocks were made. The cost for cement for footers and floors was negotiated, and the lumber company cut a deal on material for the roof. In ’88 or ’89 the two bays in the middle of the building were built and a doorway between the old and the new bays was cut.
Community spirit and community service remained a primary mission of the department during the second half of the 20th Century. In 1976 the firemen collected money from the community for the Bicentennial Fourth of July celebration and organized the parade, fireworks, and a dance which lasted until four o’clock in the morning. The parade and fireworks continue to this day.
1976 was also the first year of the annual Steak Fry, the department’s biggest annual fundraiser. Lee Gordon, assistant chief from 1976 to 1990, chief from 1990-1993, and then assistant chief again until 2024, remembers going to Tucson and buying 100 8 oz sirloins that first year. The association borrowed tables, chairs and grills and set up in the Patagonia Town Park. The dinner was a huge success, enjoyed by all who attended. Gordon, the longest serving fireman in Patagonia, helped run it and hasn’t missed one since.