Nicholas Gilmore
The Santa Fe New Mexican
(TNS)
A small group of Santa Fe firefighters standing atop a 25-year-old fire station on Richards Avenue pulled away several tarps Thursday morning to reveal a new name for the facility: Chief Frank DiLuzio Station 7.
The reveal came at the end of a dedication ceremony in which city officials and family and friends of Frank DiLuzio Jr., a former fire chief and city manager, gathered to honor the deceased man’s legacy in molding Santa Fe’s public safety services.
DiLuzio died at age 66 in 2021 after a struggle against a rare form of cancer. The City Council voted unanimously in December to name a fire station in his honor.
The fire station that now bears his name is one for which DiLuzio worked to secure public funding to build, several city officials noted. Fire Station 7, on Richards Avenue north of Rodeo Road, was built in 1999 to accommodate population growth and to decrease response times for fire and emergency services on the city’s south side.
Construction on the station was completed in March 1999. At the time, DiLuzio told The New Mexican, the south-side fire station was “something we’ve dreamed of for a long time.”
DiLuzio had worked to secure millions of dollars in federal funding for construction of the station and oversaw the design and construction to ensure the facility was accessible for people with disabilities and as ecologically sustainable as possible, Chief Brian Moya said in an interview after the ceremony.
Officials hailed DiLuzio’s contributions to the facility and to the city’s fire department as a whole as “forward thinking” and “progressive” in hindsight.
DiLuzio is credited as the first paramedic to work for the city when he joined the department in 1979. Moya said DiLuzio was responsible for expanding an emergency medical services program within the city’s fire department as well as ensuring firefighters received paramedic training.
“In the last 40 years, we have created paramedic programs. Everybody is an EMT, and our firetrucks all run advanced life support,” Moya said, noting DiLuzio’s vision for public emergency services tied to firefighting has become ubiquitous in fire departments throughout the country.
The event marked Santa Fe’s first fire station dedication in about 40 years, Moya said. The process for dedicating a fire station — laid out in the municipal code — involved a public call for nominations and review by committees as well as the City Council.
A new plaque hanging next to the fire station’s front entrance notes DiLuzio was Santa Fe’s “first paramedic,” and he served as fire chief from 1994 to 2000 before being appointed city manager — “the first from the public safety sector to hold this position.”
“He would be so honored,” Janet DiLuzio said after the ceremony while gazing up at her late husband’s name in silver lettering on the building.
“He was the most ethical person I ever knew,” DiLuzio said, adding she and Frank DiLuzio were together for 34 years. “Even when he was sick he just wanted to enjoy each day for what it is.”
Many of DiLuzio’s surviving relatives, including his young grandchildren, attended the ceremony.
Chris Rivera, a former city councilor and Santa Fe fire chief, spoke about the years he had worked alongside DiLuzio, who he said “set the foundation for what the Santa Fe Fire Department would become.”
DiLuzio, as chief medical instructor, trained Rivera and many others in emergency medical care, Rivera said.
“Frank taught us all the medicine we needed to know, and how to handle all those emergencies, but he also taught us to be compassionate,” Rivera said. “He taught us to be caring and respectful of everyone, regardless.”
James Maxon, a former fire chief in Sandoval County, called DiLuzio a “trailblazer” in the field and a “classic early adopter.”
Maxon recognized DiLuzio’s advocacy for firefighters in the state Legislature.
DiLuzio lobbied for changes to the state’s presumptive disability laws to include firefighters, recognizing their occupational hazards and guaranteeing workers compensation. The change was adopted in 2009, and DiLuzio was one of the first firefighters to benefit from the new protections when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma a few years later.
“He truly made a difference and many firefighters are safer as a result of his efforts,” Maxon said.
The best way to honor DiLuzio’s legacy, Maxon posed, would be to improve preventive measures and detection of cancer for firefighters and to increase support for firefighters who suffer from occupational illnesses like cancer.
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