San Juan County firefighters rescue puppy stranded in river

A puppy trapped on an island in the middle of the San Juan River ended its ordeal in the hands of San Juan County Fire & Rescue, a small rescue that showed how often the county’s firefighters are called far beyond flames.

The Bloomfield Police Department posted a public shout-out after the recent save, which came as county crews were already stretched with wildfire response, including state incidents and California pre-positioning work. The dog had been stranded in a risky spot on the river until firefighters and rescuers reached it and brought it to safety.

The rescue offered a close-up look at what San Juan County Fire & Rescue does every day across a wide stretch of northwest New Mexico. County materials describe the department as a combination agency with volunteer and paid responders, operating from 22 stations with about 70 active volunteers. It covers about 5,500 square miles and handles first response fire and medical services, hazardous materials incidents, wildland firefighting, water rescue, high-angle rescue, search and rescue, and vehicle extrication.

Those responsibilities matter because the department is routinely expected to cover both local emergencies and larger regional demands. County public-facing materials say the agency responds to more than 9,000 calls a year, or about 25 a day. The work ranges from rural medical calls to river rescues and wildfire deployments, with crews often shifting from one type of emergency to another without warning.

San Juan County named David Vega fire chief in February 2023, and county materials say all new recruits are trained to the IFSAC Firefighter I & II level in their first year. The system was renamed San Juan County Fire & Rescue in 2021 and later consolidated into four zones in 2024, part of a broader effort to organize service across the county’s unincorporated areas and, by agreement, Bloomfield and Kirtland.

The puppy rescue also fit a pattern of animal-related emergency work that has increasingly become part of the department’s public-safety profile. In a separate August 2025 incident, San Juan County Fire and Rescue partnered with the New Mexico Game and Fish Department in a bear rescue. Together, the calls show a department that is judged not only by its wildfire response, but by its ability to handle whatever turns up in a county where rivers, roads, and remote terrain can all demand an immediate response.