Full Notification

The City of Maricopa Fire Department is ready to respond to emergencies from local responses to the national level ones like the Slide Fire currently burning in Sedona. The Wildland/Urban Interface team started up 5 years ago consisting of a few individuals within the department that had several years of wild land experience. Today we are pleased to announce that we have 15 firefighters, we have 2 qualified engine bosses and one that is a trainee in the engine boss capacity providing the leadership for the program. These positions in wild land qualification system take several years and specific experience for an individual to obtain. The department is also fortunate to have a member of our team that serves on the Southwest Area Type 1 Incident Management Team as their Public Information Officer (PIO), one of only 16 national response team in the country. The department is ready and capable to answer the call for assistance where ever it is needed.
Each year the members of the Maricopa fire department take a series of tests and then a challenging pack test that is done by walking with 45lbs of weight pack for 3 miles in 45 mins. or less. The team member refreshes their knowledge and gathers new knowledge by attending drills twice a year that are put on by several agencies throughout Arizona. The Maricopa wild land and interface division is a part of the Pinal county wild land group and this consists of 6 other departments for a rotational deployment. This is also, where the team has an individual that is the co-chair of the committee. Deployment is based on the resources that are needed and what department is up for that rotation.

The team and its members have been deployed here within our state along with deployments outside of Arizona to states including California, New Mexico, Washington, and Texas. All costs for these deployments are reimbursed by the State of Arizona Forestry Service that covers the hourly wage for the apparatus, the cost of all personnel needed for that deployment and back fill at the station to ensure that our fire apparatus in town stay fully staffed.

The department has Type 1 apparatus (this is your fire trucks that you see on a everyday basis) these trucks are ready at any given moment to help in the event of a wildfire that there are structures that need to be protected. Our main apparatus that goes out is the Type 3 (brush truck) this truck has 4x4 capability and is a lot more maneuverable in smaller rough terrain which is the working conditions for a wild fire. This truck can also, serve as a Type I in structure protection. There is also, a water tender that is available consisting of 2500 gallons. This tender is available for local responses along with deployments in the event of a wild fire.

“It is a great benefit for the community and the surrounding agencies to have such a qualified and professional group,” says Albert Bandin Wild land/Urban interface coordinator, “our members are ready for deployments at any given moments time anywhere in the nation.”