Kirtland civilian named AFGSC firefighter of the year

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Phyllis Keith
  • Kirtland Public Affairs
A firefighter assigned to the 377th Civil Engineering Squadron's fire emergency services was named Air Force Global Strike Command's civilian firefighter of the year.

Phillip Macias won the award for his outstanding performance as a fire inspector, and for his efforts in creating a map synchronization system, which quickly identifies optimal routes for first responders, shaving valuable seconds off dispatch time.

"He's quite a computer whiz," said Juan Salas, Macias' supervisor and the assistant chief of fire prevention at the squadron. "He created a one-stop shopping application--it has all of our pre-fire plans for all of the facilities on Kirtland. We tie in our inspections to those pre-fire plans. He made it to where the responders can access all of this info from a laptop and have up-to-date info anytime they go on a call."

Salas said Macias has worked in fire prevention for the past four years after spending 11 years riding the trucks.

Fire prevention officers like Salas and Macias work 60 hours a week, including one 24-hour shift riding the fire trucks in order to stay proficient.

With 15 years of civil service under his belt, Macias is now competing at the Air Force level against the winners from other commands. The Air Force winner will then compete against all of the Department of Defense.

In an email announcing the award, Lawrence Kingsley, the director of logistics, engineering and force protection at AFGSC headquarters, congratulated Macias and other award winners, and wished them good luck at the Air Force and DoD levels.