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Martha Elena Vargas Gaitan is on a mission.
The 40-year-old Colombian firefighter wants to create a culture of safety among South and Central American firefighters and rescue workers.
The instructor at the Texas Engineering Extension Service's annual Spanish Fire School explained that Spanish-speaking emergency workers are growing more aware of safety, a value that Gaitan said is not naturally part of Latin culture.
"Safety has to come first," she said. "As firefighters, we have an image of safety that we need to maintain and promote."
Hundreds of firefighters, rescue workers and instructors are in College Station this week for the annual Spanish Fire School -- one of three summer schools offered by TEEX this month.
At the municipal, industrial and Spanish fire schools, men and women learn from experienced instructors and battle emergencies using more than 20 live-fuel props.
About 700 people were expected to attend the Spanish Fire School, but TEEX Division Director Chief Les Bunte said only 415 were here this week.
Bunte attributed the decrease to the recession that is affecting many countries. Most of the rescue workers who attend Spanish Fire School pay their own way and use vacation time from their jobs.
Gaitan has come to Spanish Fire School for the past six years as an instructor -- paying her own way and taking unpaid leave or vacation time from her job.
She is the first Latina instructor at TEEX and the first female airfield firefighter in Colombia.
Gaitan was severely burned as a child in a gas stove explosion, and she said it took her a long time to realize firefighting was her calling in life.
She was working as a veterinarian when she started volunteering for the Red Cross in the 1990s. When the nonprofit organization asked for people to sign up to be trained in rescue and firefighting, Gaitan said, she did so to encourage other people to do the same.
Ultimately, Gaitan was the only one of the 25 volunteers to pass the initial training exam. Looking back, Gaitan said, that was a stroke of luck.
Some people are artists or politicians, she explained, because it's in their blood.
"And some people are born to be firefighters -- like me," she said.
When TEEX officials asked her to teach fire safety, Gaitan said, she was disappointed at first.
"I wanted to be out there fighting fires," she said, motioning toward the field.
But ultimately, Gaitan said, she realized that firefighting and rescue work begin and end with safety.
This is the 43rd year for the Spanish Fire School, and founder Salvador Lambreton said he was pleased with how much the program had grown.
Watching a team of firefighters working on an airplane engulfed in flames, Lambreton recalled how the school used fire extinguishers and basic equipment on a small field at Texas Avenue and University Drive in its first year, 1966. Twenty-three Spanish-speaking firefighters attended that training, he said.
The 89-year-old Monterrey, Mexico, resident has been coming to College Station for fire school for the past 59 years. He's a legend among the Spanish-speaking firefighters, many of whom come back year after year to be with friends and learn at the world's largest live-fire training facility.
"Coming here makes me feel young again," he said.
