By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
Sandoval County Fire and Rescue is losing one of its founding members. Commissioners spent part of their Aug. 26 meeting honoring Capt. Shannon Farrell, who retired after 21 years with the department and 34 years total in public safety, closing out a career that shaped how the county trains firefighters, treats patients and deploys search-and-rescue dogs.
Farrell was one of 12 original SCFR firefighters hired in 2005, Fire Chief Chris Bagley told commissioners. “There are three people left from the original 12 firefighters of Sandoval County Rescue who were hired in 2005: myself, Deputy Chief Sean Kissane and Capt. Shannon Farrell. As of Sept. 1, only two will remain,” Bagley said. Farrell started as a Bernalillo County volunteer, became an EMT with Albuquerque Ambulance, and earned her paramedic license in 2001 before joining SCFR.
Bagley said Farrell helped build the department into what it is today, serving as a firefighter, paramedic, lieutenant and, finally, captain. She was an original member of the Rio Grande Basin Rescue Team, which specializes in swift-water and difficult-terrain rescues, industrial accidents and other emergencies. She also founded the county’s K-9 program, whose dogs have helped find human remains in missing persons cases and located people stranded on trails with medical emergencies.
Bagley said Farrell also “almost single-handedly” created the department’s public health and community outreach program, and last year led a project that brought a Narcan and gun-lock vending machine to the county health center in Bernalillo. “The best decisions I’ve ever made as a chief officer have been to say yes to anything she’s ever asked me to do,” Bagley said.
Deputy County Manager Eric Masterson, a former SCFR chief who partnered with Farrell as a paramedic for nearly four years, called in from the East Coast to add his own tribute. He said Farrell’s impact on public safety in New Mexico will be felt for years, and credited her with mentoring him from his earliest days with the department. “Those years had a tremendous impact on my career. Ultimately, she taught me how to be a paramedic. She taught me what it meant to be an advocate for patients and their families,” Masterson said. “But more importantly, Shannon, you taught me how to be a good leader.”