The Albuquerque Fire Department is a nonpartisan division of city government, but the agency has become embroiled in the hotly contested race for the 1st Congressional District.

Fire Chief Robert Ortega on Tuesday called on U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson to stop running a TV ad starring uniformed firefighters and a fire truck that appears to suggest the AFD supports Wilson.

The incumbent is locked in a tight battle for the House seat with Democratic state Attorney General Patricia Madrid.

After receiving several calls about the ad, the chief asked Wilson to pull it, said department spokesman Mike Paiz.

"We are respectfully requesting that Ms. Wilson cease the use of any images of the Albuquerque Fire Department in her campaign ads or literature, or any implication that the AFD endorses her campaign," the department said in a release Tuesday.

But it turns out the firefighters and fire truck in the ad aren't from the Albuquerque Fire Department.

Although the red trucks and blue uniforms look similar - causing a public impression they were from AFD - the key components in the ad are from the village of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque.

Village Mayor Larry Abraham said he allowed the Wilson campaign to use the truck and the firefighters in the ad.

"I had no problem with letting them use the truck," he said. "But it's not an endorsement."

Abraham, however, said he didn't anticipate the ruckus his decision would cause.

Wilson campaign manager Enrique Carlos Knell suggested Madrid's campaign put Ortega up to calling a news conference Tuesday about the ad.

In addition, he said, the Madrid campaign didn't have its facts straight regarding the firefighters and truck.

"They are wrong," he said of Wilson's opponents. "It's unfortunate that Patricia Madrid made the chief do this and did it with bad facts."

Madrid spokeswoman Heather Brewer denied any knowledge about Ortega's request that Wilson yank the ad.

"This is the first I've heard of it," she said Tuesday night.

While the city fire department can't endorse candidates, its members are free to express themselves, and they are split.

The Albuquerque-area firefighters union local 244 has endorsed Madrid in the race; the New Mexico Professional Firefighters Association has endorsed Wilson.

Paiz said his boss, not Madrid, calls the shots at the department.

"Patricia Madrid is a politician but she doesn't run our department," he said. "Chief Robert Ortega runs our department."

The election is Nov. 7. Absentee voting starts Tuesday.