Newcastle fire chief's life of service remembered

Journal Staff WriterRay Vega?s life was celebrated Tuesday as hundreds packed into an Auburn church to remember the man who served as chief of the Newcastle Fire Protection District for 35 years.?The fire service was always first,? Michael Davis, chief of the Penryn Fire Department, said of Vega, who died Dec. 16 at the age of 64.Vega?s concern for the community and the firefighters who served Newcastle was apparent, Davis said.?Ray loved them all,? he recalled.Davis said Vega guided the fire department through many changes, including adding paid staff to augment the volunteers. Newcastle Fire was a small all-volunteer outfit when Vega took over as chief in 1968. The department now has nine fire engines, 12 paid firefighters and 20 volunteers.Vega?s devotion to his wife Sharon, his family and friends was well known, Davis recalled.?Ray would do anything for them,? he said.Chief Tim Mrozinski, president of the Placer County Fire Chiefs Association, told those gathered at the Parkside Church of the Nazarene that, ?I?m here to speak of our brother.??Placer County will miss this man,? Mrozinski said of Vega.Mrozinski spoke of Newcastle in the 1950s, before the freeway ran through the community and when Highway 40 was the main thoroughfare.Vega began working for the fire department then, went on to serve as its chief and established the foundation for Newcastle Fire, Mrozinski said.?The man was steadfast,? he said. ?We did love this man.?Jim Riolo, assistant chief for Newcastle Fire, recalled Vega as an informal, down-to-earth man who was ?always finding the lighter side of things.?Placer County Supervisors this month had honored Ray and Sharon Vega as outstanding community leaders, presenting the couple with a commemorative coin created for a new county citizen-recognition program.Sharon Vega, a captain for Newcastle Fire, met her future husband Ray at a dance held at the Newcastle Fire Hall. They were married in 1960.?He was my best friend,? Sharon Vega said. ?He was more to me than a husband.?The couple rarely took vacations. For their 40th wedding anniversary they were headed to dinner in the mountains when they learned a brush fire was burning in Newcastle. They turned and headed for the fire.Fire trucks from agencies including Newcastle Fire, Auburn, Placer Consolidated, Penryn, Loomis, Foresthill and Sacramento Metro were outside the site of the services Tuesday.A red pickup truck was in the front of the church, the vehicle?s rear window bearing the message, ?In Loving Memory of Chief Ray Vega, 1939-2003.?