Great-grandmother is a Nevada fire chief

LUNING, Nev. — To say that nothing much goes on in this tiny hamlet astride lonely U.S. Highway 95 about 97 miles southeast of Fallon is putting it mildly.

Luning’s one-room elementary school was closed in 1956, the Southern Pacific Railroad’s freight depot was shuttered in 1986 and the town’s only bar and cafe, the Long Branch Saloon, was closed four years ago after its owner, former Navy man Dick Hegg, took ill.

Hegg, whose final duty post before retirement was at NAS Fallon, died last year, and his colorful Long Branch Saloon, a favorite stop for travelers driving between northern and southern Nevada, is long-abandoned and literally disintegrating.

A local resident’s plan to build a plant to manufacture cement statuary and bird baths never materialized, and “about all we have left here are a rock and gift shop that’s open only on weekends and the post office,” says Postmaster Sonja Blazewick.

“But Luning still has about 40 residents, a five-member Town Board and our pride and joy, the Luning volunteer Fire Department,” she added.

One of the seven-member fire department’s three female firefighters, she laughed when noting the appropriateness of “Blaze,” the first five letters of her last name.

“But I take my job on the fire truck very seriously. The nearest fire stations to us are Mina, 10 miles to the south and Hawthorne, 24 miles to the north, so we are responsible for protecting this large area,” she explained, pointing to the community’s sprawling collection of wooden houses and mobile homes.

Blazewick’s superior and Luning’s fire chief is Zoela Buffington, a 68-year-old mother of three, grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of a five-year old.

Buffington formerly was assistant chief, working under 85-year-old chief Bob Bell. Bell has since passed away, and Buffington has been chief for the past 12 years, wearing the traditional white helmet” that designates her lofty leadership role in the three-truck volunteer fire department.

“This is our main truck,” she said, hopping aboard a white, 1982 Ford pumper that holds 500 gallons of water. The other two trucks, both red, are 1942 and 1972 Fords. Each of their tanks holds 250 gallons of water.

“The 1942 is getting a bit old, but we still use it on fires. The engine’s in good shape and we just put in a new battery,” said Ely-born Buffington.

A retired trucker, Willie Buffington traces his Nevada roots to his father’s family which traveled across the hot desert in the mid-1860s and arrived in the Fernley area from Iowa in ox-drawn wagons.

Another Luning Volunteer Fire Department stalwart is l3-year old Russell Sandvik, the son of assistant chief-and Town Board chair Tamara Sandvik.

Russell isn’t allowed to ride the fire trucks because he’s under the minimum firefighter’s age of 18, but he helps around the firehouse and follows the trucks on emergency runs in a gasoline-powered golf cart.

Homeschooled, (children in Luning are bused to schools in Hawthorne, the Mineral County seat), young Sandvik is an important addition to her department, and “we can’t wait until he turns 18, Chief Buffington said.

Although fires in Luning are few (the most recent have been grass fires and a porch fire), the Luning volunteers act as backups to the Mina Fire Department and not long ago raced to that community to help quell fires that were roaring at two trailers owned by Ace Perkins.

Two of the Luning volunteers also are trained as EMTs, and they recently aided a local man who fell off a horse.

“We are required to be trained in chemical spills and HAZMAT situations, and we regularly take courses given by the State Fire Marshal’s office to keep us proficient,” said Chief Buffington.

“All of the volunteers carry pagers to alert us when a fire occurs, and a fire siren also is rung at the fire house,” she said.

Chief Buffington, according to the International Assn. of Women in Fire and Emergency Services, is one of approximately 150 female volunteer fire chiefs in the U.S. There are about 30 career female U.S. fire chiefs, and the cities they have served include San Francisco, Minneapolis, San Diego and Lewiston, Idaho.

Nevada State Fire Marshal James M. Wright said there are 161 paid and volunteer fire departments in Nevada, and the state “relies heavily on deparments such as Luning to serve Nevada’s vast rural areas. They do a wonderful job 24 hours a day seven days a week.”

“We get no salariesf insurance or retirement pay. We do it because we love our community,” said Chief Buffington.

A bustling mining town in the late l800s and early 19008 before the area’s silver, lead and copper mines played out, Luning in its prime had several stores, hotels, cafes, bars, the school and a population of 250.

Today, although Luning’s population has withered to 40, and there are no realistic expectations of an immediate economic revival, this close-knit community looks to its volunteer fire department as a major source of unification that maintains its independence, pride, self-worth and sense of history.