Rio Rancho Fire Rescue expands prehospital EMS capabilities with new equipment, training

Fire Chief James Wenzel and EMS Battalion Chief Chris Mandeville announced that Rio Rancho Fire Rescue has added fresh frozen plasma, finger thoracostomy and medication‑facilitated airway management to its prehospital toolkit to stabilize critically injured or ill patients on scene. The department says the changes will reduce reliance on air ambulances and long transports to trauma centers for Sandoval County residents.

The department is now carrying fresh frozen plasma and using it for trauma patients, an advance officials say lets crews treat severe hemorrhage immediately rather than waiting for hospital arrival or air care. City officials describe Rio Rancho as having the second ground ambulance in New Mexico able to provide any kind of blood product administration and the only fire‑based EMS service in the state to offer that capability.

Paramedics also received approval to perform finger thoracostomies, a rapid chest‑decompression procedure used when air or blood collapses a lung. The technique, which Sandoval County reporting says is faster and more effective than the previously used needle method, exceeds New Mexico’s standard paramedic scope of practice and required signoff from the state EMS Medical Direction Committee before implementation.

Medication‑facilitated airway management was operationalized in July 2025 after 12 months of preparation, with specially trained paramedic supervisors using sedatives and paralytics to safely insert endotracheal tubes for patients who cannot protect their own airways. Local reporting places Rio Rancho among a small fraction of ground ambulance services nationwide with such hospital‑level prehospital capabilities; about 15 percent of ground ambulance services have medication‑facilitated airway management, the department notes.

“We should provide the highest level of care we can to our community,” Fire Chief James Wenzel said, explaining the department’s decision to carry new tools and adopt new procedures. “Making decisions like this, implementing programs, carrying new tools, new equipment, new procedures like this from our EMS division, which is so much of what we do. It’s kind of our job. It’s our role.”

Battealion Chief Chris Mandeville framed the changes as practical patient‑care improvements: “Whenever we are called on scene and are able to stabilize and provide some of those additional treatments prior to us getting the patient to the hospital, so that definitive care is more smooth and seamless.” He added that the new capabilities “represent our continued commitment to providing the highest level of prehospital care possible.”

Mandeville also pointed to past operational challenges in the region, saying the expanded skills and equipment address “lengthy wait times for air care or extended transport times to deliver patients to trauma centers.” “It assists us out in the field, with us being able to provide care for our patients and not having to rely on other entities or agencies. We don’t have to take the extra time to go out of our way to go to Sandoval Regional for any stabilizing. We have the ability to stabilize our patients,” he emphasized.

Rio Rancho Fire Rescue operates as a single‑tier EMS service, responsible for medical care and patient transport in the city, and officials say the new capabilities follow years of planning and training. Department leaders contend the steps position Rio Rancho to deliver earlier, hospital‑level interventions at accident scenes and to smooth transitions to definitive care at regional hospitals.