RRFD host Halloween open house

RIO RANCHO— Rio Rancho Fire & Rescue hosted a Halloween open house event at Fire Station 1 Saturday afternoon.

“Typically, we like to do one open house a year for Halloween. Last year, we had a different approach; we did an open house at each station ... This year, we decided to do the one big station at Station 1,”RRFR Emergency Manager Rose Martinez said. “We appreciate the community coming out and all the support that they bring.”

Martinez also mentioned that her candy of choice leans toward anything with white chocolate.

Festivities included free candy, a smoke house, a look at the fire station, sitting in a real firetruck, trying out their fire hoses (with RRFD supervision) and a costume contest.

“I got candy and went in the firetruck,” young open house goer Nathanael Goke said. Goke was dressed up as Stitch from “Lilo & Stitch” and plans to dress up as one of the “Ghostbusters” for Halloween.

The most-spotted costume came from the summer blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine.” A lot of people either dressed up as the titular characters or as different forms of “Deadpool.”

“I am all about community involvement and having safety prevention measures,” RRFR Battalion Chief of Operations Jessica Duron-Martinez said. “Having an event like this to have the city come in a safe environment for these families is very important to us.”

Duron-Martinez also shared that her top three candies are KitKats, Almond Joys and Reese’s. She also shared which ones she disliked.

“Black licorice. I just can’t do it or candy corn. Sorry, candy corn people, I just can’t do it,” Duron-Martinez said.

Duron-Martinez wanted to advise the public to routinely replace smoke alarm batteries when Daylight Savings comes around. Daylight Saving Time ends Nov. 3.

“I always like to put a safety thing out there. Make sure you guys check your smoke detectors, make sure your batteries are working, make sure you are doing your fire safety drills once a year,” Duron-Martinez said.