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For nine years, Chief Michael Hays spent most of his life at the Brazos Canyon Volunteer Fire Department.

He toiled nearly every day during those years to resurrect the rural northern New Mexico unit, motivating the volunteers and coaxing money from the community to sustain it.

But it was time, the 64-year-old told friends and colleagues, to spend more time with his four grandchildren. On Saturday, he retired.

Three days later, Hays died as he paid one more visit to the station.

Hays was alone at the fire station Tuesday when a powerful explosion, possibly caused by a natural gas leak, laid waste to the structure. He was rushed to a nearby clinic, but, Rio Arriba County Sheriff Joe Mascarenas said: "He didn't make it."

Carol Schultz, a family friend of 25 years, said Hays was the backbone of the department.

"I can't remember a day he wasn't (there) unless he was out of town," she said.

Hays and his wife of 42 years, Mona — also an emergency responder — planned to move to be closer to their two daughters and grandchildren, Schultz said.

Now the small community of Brazos, about two miles north of Tierra Amarilla, is mourning the loss of the former Navy serviceman.

Schultz credits Hays for having resurrected the Fire Department, and raising the money to support it. His devotion also spilled over to the volunteer staff who kept it thriving.

"It was started but had never truly gotten off the ground until he took it over," she said.

Marti Griego, director of the 911 dispatch center for Rio Arriba County, said her staff received several calls about the blast. The first came in at 12:13 p.m.

"We knew something was very wrong," she said. "We could hear it in their voices. It was one of our own that we had to take care of."

Dispatchers immediately summoned help and asked whether anyone else had been in the station at the time of the blast.

The fire station is in a rural area surrounded by cabins and trees. Griego said there was concern the fire might spread throughout the wooded area.

The cause of the blast wasn't immediately clear.

"We suspected there might have been a gas leak," Mascarenas said. "It just exploded."

The sheriff said Hays had mentioned earlier to county Fire Marshal Jerome Sanchez that he had smelled gas.

The steel frame of the building remains standing, while lumber, insulation and other debris is scattered about, witnesses said.

Griego attended meetings with Hays over the years and said he spent a lot of time at the fire station. Just last year, Hays invited Griego and her staff to tour the station because Hays wanted to make sure dispatchers knew the area in case they had to send emergency responders, she said.

"He was just a very kind and wonderful man who devoted his life to the Fire Department, and he's going to be missed," she said.