gunhog11

Station 34 at the airport got inherited by the Northern AZ Fire District, but they appear to have closed it down. There used to be the E-One ARFF unit there and the 1982 Dodge that had been there forever. Am not sure if those have been sold off. Doesn’t appear the airport has dedicated units anymore. The ARFF came about there when Kingman used to have small airline service into there, and it remained when that service ceased. however, with the cost of maintaining that capability when it was no longer required to have, maybe that did it in.

Funny this. As in addition to Rural Metro selling the ALS CON for Northwest Fire District to them, Rural Metro just the other day offered to sell their Green Valley FD CON to that department. Why RM/SWA seems intent on killing operations in Pima County, I have no idea. Granted I-66s recent vote to approve a strike is nothing more than a bluff I personally believe, and one that RM isn't going to bite off on.

I'm not completely sure whether that's going to happen, or whether they'll sell those over to Northwest in order to supplement NW's few rescue's that they have. Three of them will be kept for BLS for NW, as SWA will be retaining that contract, but the remaining 7 ambos would have to find other work. Maybe a different paintjob/striping too. But transferring them from Pima to Maricopa/Pinal operation of SWA would make sense, as there's no additional work for them down here, and they'd just sit at fleet doing nothing.

Speaking of CONs, down in Pima County, RM sold the ALS portion of their CON for Northwest Fire District to the district. Final approval awaits. But this effectively takes 9 or so SWA ALS ambos out of service, and replaces them with 3 BLS ambos to serve NWFs BLS transport needs. All of this was done up at corporate, with the Pima operation apparently not having been in the loop on the decision. Equipment-wise, I'm not yet sure where the brand new NW-painted SWA ambos will go....whether they will transfer or whether NWF will acquire all or some of them, or none. Personnel-wise, this displaces about 18 paramedics who are still unclear where they can transfer to in the Pima County operation, as the other main ALS contract, Green Valley, doesn't have expansion room for that many. It's possible they may be absorbed by interfacility ambos. This, combined with the wholesale ceasing of Indiana operations, makes one wonder what RM is truly up to and what their end-state goals are, if there are indeed any.

The info was accurate at the time it was posted, as is their financial situation. It just appears they were able to make a change and save some things. Reference the news link I posted along with my post, it's all right there.

Arivaca FD, northwest of Nogales, laid off all personnel this past Monday after determining that the district could no longer afford to pay them. Some of the FFs have remained as volunteers, but response times will definitely increase due to this. Arivaca had suffered funding shortages through EMS transports that hadn't been paid out as expected.......$6000 return on $93,000 in billings, as well as with wildland assignments. Lately with wildland assignments, it's been taking nearly 9-12 months to get paid by the state, even when the state got paid by the feds quickly. Hopefully, the district will be able to get back to paid status in due time. Story here: http://www.kvoa.com/news/all-arivaca-fire-district-employees-laid-off/

Oh, I didn't know they don't brand the Glendale ones anymore. So they are indeed out of the yellow/white ambo's business finally.

With the loss of one BC already, the investigation continues into the allegations of inappropriate S/L usage and possibly other violations of department or city policies. Unfortunate. As an outsider looking in, and not aware of GFDs or the city's specific policies regarding the allegations, its difficult to know more than what's covered in the news. But the possibility for more fallout from this exists. http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/gilbert/article_3c2a5c5a-e851-11e3-8587-001a4bcf887a.html

SWA down in Pima County has been involved in 3 major accidents in the past 4 months down in Pima County. The last one from a few weeks ago became fatal, when the 92 yr old passenger of a civilian vehicle struck by the ambulance on east Grant Rd, passed away today. Unfortunate and tragic. http://www.jrn.com/kgun9/news/92-year-old-woman-dies-from-injuries-sustained-in-May-car-accident-261551141.html

The branding is indeed trendy and it looks nice. Although it makes for a requirement for more fleet trucks, as the branded trucks can't be used to cover elsewhere when needed. In a similar vein, for example, I don't think I've ever seen one of SWAs yellow colored Glendale contract ambos anywhere other than there, or at fleet. Never seen any covering elsewhere.

R/M appears to be wanting to press hard with ambulance service, and slowly getting out of the fire business for area that get too large and costly to manage. Such was the case with Scottsdale seemingly. Problem is too, with monopoly comes service that could widely range from great to lousy, and not much can be done about the latter. Company management still doesn't seem to be controlling how much the company spends and ensure its done in a fiscally conservative manner. But when all they have to do is declare Ch 13 and have their debts waived, what is the incentive to?

That's all cool stuff, especially being able to start a fire dept from the ground up and tailor it to the direction the core staff would like to see it progress. Not too many opportunities to get in on something like that. Insofar as fire, I do contract Fire/EMS work down here......wildland / ARFF / car races / events, in a contract company here; it's mostly all I do fire related these days, having started in fire in 1989. Wife works for SWA down here and I have a few friends I see occasionally from there from RM side, but I don't always catch details of stuff going on that's basically just interesting to me. Just nice to see a new dept starting and seeming to work well in a good direction. Hope it continues that way. Appreciate all the good info. RM provides good service down here. Contract-wise, our crew has a racetrack we cover down at Alvernon/Los Reales, and our patient transport when needed is normally R71, or sometimes P881 or P899. Always easy to work with and helpful crews, allowing us to get back in service quickly and not have our ambo be stuck with extended patient care, so it can rejoin the brush truck on track (pictured in avatar, one of fleet). With MV starting up, I imagine R70 will no longer be at quarters there. Has ground broken on the combined Station 71/81 on the south side yet? Last I'd heard it was still in the works.

Is L610 going to be unmanned once the transition occurs? Just seems kind of weird to have a fire district of 15 square miles, sandwiched between two other larger districts. Is there expansion ability to the foothills to the east?

Rescue 22 at 7th st / Broadway early this AM. T-boned in intersection by a car and rollover. Only about 2 months ago or so that RM Paramedic 881 suffered the exact same fate at the intersection of Valencia / Alvernon in metro Tucson, also with no injuries. http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/speeding-car-hits-and-tips-over-ambulance-transporting-a-patient-sunday-morning

Agree. If SWA is meeting the contract, then they can't complain. Contract for ALS, or if you want an ambo quicker, work a contract for SWA basing within the SCFD stations. And I can see that tax rate cap per $100 assessed value increase trying to make a comeback. There are some departments who live off of keeping their tax rates at the cap, vs being a good steward of their money and trying to have a lower assessment.