Raúl Gándara Cartagena (1910–1989) was
fire chief
A fire chief or fire commissioner is a top executive rank or commanding officer in a fire department.
Nomenclature
Various official English-language titles for a fire chief include ''fire chief'', ''chief fire officer'' and ''fire commissioner' ...
in
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.
Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...
, and the first and longest-serving
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporate ...
fire chief. He served from 1942 to 1972.
Public service
Gándara Cartagena was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, on 26 March 1910. In 1930, he entered the Ponce Fire Department as Commander. In 1942, the Puerto Rico Legislature created the ''Servicio de Bomberos de Puerto Rico'' (Puerto Rico Fire Service), and the governor of the island at the time, Rexford Guy Towell, selected Raúl Gándara—who at the moment was Captain of the Ponce Fire Corps—to become Puerto Rico's first state fire chief. Gandara was Puerto Rico state chief for 30 years, making him the longest-serving state fire chief ever.
Bomberos de Ponce
The Ponce municipal fire corps (Spanish: ''Cuerpo de Bomberos Municipales de Ponce'') was founded in 1883. Starting in the 1940s, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico opened and operated a fire corps in Ponce functioning in parallel to the Ponce municipal corps. In 1989 the municipal Cuerpo de Bomberos de Ponce were incorporated into the structure of the state's Cuerpo de Bomberos de Puerto Rico under the concept that Ponce residents would enjoy enhanced services and more modern facilities. By 2011 this promise had either not materialized or fell into disgrace and on 15 May 2012, the city once again re-initiated its own municipal fire corps.
Firefighter's handbook
In 1951, Gandara wrote "Cuerpo de bomberos: Manual del bombero" (''Firefighters Corps: A Firefighter's Handbook''), a book on the firemen's service, which became a firemen's manual in several Latin American countries.
Legacy
* In
Lares, Puerto Rico
Lares (, ) is a mountain town and municipality of Puerto Rico's central-western area. Lares is located north of Maricao and Yauco; south of Camuy, east of San Sebastián and Las Marias; and west of Hatillo, Utuado and Adjuntas. Lares is spread ...
, (Lares Electoral Precinct 48) there is a street named after Gándara.
* In 1999, the Puerto Rico legislature created the ''Medalla al Valor Raúl Gándara Cartagena'' (Raúl Gándara Catagena Valor Medal), that is given to "those firefighters displaying an act of heroism, laying out their lives to protect others."
* Gandara has also been recognized as an outstanding civic leader at Ponce's
Park for the Illustrious Ponce Citizens.
* The building housing the headquarters of Bomberos de Puerto Rico is named in his honor.
''Aviso Publico, De conformidad con la seccion 6.5(7) del Reglamento de Personal para los Empleados de Carrera del Cuerpo de Bomberos, se notifica la siguiente accion efectiva el 21 de noviembre de 2013: Cancelacion Registro de Elegibles para el Rango de Bombero.''
Gobierno del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico. 21 November 2013. Accessed 17 April 2018.
See also
* List of Puerto Ricans
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gandara-Cartagena, Raul
1910 births
1989 deaths
Civil servants from Ponce
American fire chiefs
20th-century American firefighters