Surprise Firefighter’s Dream results in saving a life

Martin Navarrette's firefighting dream leads to boy's saved life in Mexico

Ever since he was a teenager visiting Puerto Peñasco in Mexico, Martín Navarrete dreamed of one day becoming a firefighter. His aspiration came full circle last fall when he used his training to save a teenager’s life along that same shore.

Navarrete, 35, was vacationing in Puerto Peñasco (also known as Rocky Point) when he learned from his cousin, a local rescue worker, that a 14-year-old boy from Scottsdale had been hit by a boat.

When Navarrete reached the scene, he discovered the boy had suffered major injuries and lost a lot of blood. Navarrete’s experience as a paramedic and firefighter with the Surprise Fire Department told him he had to act fast to keep the boy alive.

“He didn’t need us – what he needed was a trauma facility,” he said.

He stabilized the boy enough to make it to the U.S. border and paid the necessary ambulance fees when his parents were short on cash. From the border, the boy was flown by helicopter to a Phoenix hospital.

“The next day, I visited him and he was talking and telling me thanks,” Navarrete says,  smiling.

He tells the story of the rescue humbly, seemingly unfazed by the media attention and praise it has generated. In March, he was honored with his department’s Individual Citation award.

Born in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, Mexico, Navarrete moved to Yuma as a child.

He and his high school girlfriend (now wife and mother of his three children) Veronica often visited Puerto Peñasco, where her uncle, Adolfo Celaya, was fire chief.

Back in Arizona, he studied at community colleges, became a U.S. citizen and volunteered for the Surprise Fire Department, where he was hired in 2005.
Today, Navarrete nurtures Celaya’s vision of building Puerto Peñasco’s fire department into a top-notch operation. He travels there several times a year to train firefighters in new techniques and holds workshops for them in Surprise.

“There are 1.2 million tourists in Rocky Point at any time, and it could be one of my brothers or sisters from Surprise who gets hurt there. I’d like them to get the same treatment they would receive if they were in the States,” he says.