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Sun City fire, medical units rolling constantly

Agency activity tops nearly all others in state

Posted 1/20/20

How busy is Sun City Fire and Medical Department? Busier than nearly all others in the state, according to call volume.

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Sun City fire, medical units rolling constantly

Agency activity tops nearly all others in state

Posted

How busy is Sun City Fire and Medical Department? Busier than nearly all others in the state, according to call volume.

The Sun City department is part of a fire district that includes Sun City, Youngtown and the Citrus Point neighborhood, an area south of Bell Road in the 114th Avenue alignment. SCFMD handles an average of about 1,000 calls per month, with most of those being medical related.

“This is a very busy department,” said Tim Wilmes, Sun City fire district board member. “Our numbers are right up there with some of the biggest departments in the state.”

Ron Deadman, Sun City fire chief, said Sun City’s Engine 133 handled the most calls in 2018 with 4,377 and Engine 132 topped the charts in 2017 with 4,156. Those call volumes topped, in 2018, and nearly surpassed Phoenix Fire Department’s Engine 18, which had 4,262 in 2018 and 4,612 in 2017.

“Phoenix Fire Engine 18 is recognized as the busiest unit,” Mr. Deadman stated in an email. “All this data came directly through the Phoenix CAD system.”

Despite that, the Sun City department faces a number of challenges, including financial, as a new year starts.

“Our biggest challenge this year will be our budget and the continued service delivery,” Mr. Deadman stated. “While the economy is growing, our ability to fund emergency service operations is dwindling.”

He added fire districts across Arizona are struggling due to legislative changes that restrict funding sources, including arbitrary tax rate caps, budget growth ceilings and the passage of Proposition 117. One district goal for the new year is to add an emergency response apparatus as the demand for service continues to increase.

“With the need for an additional responding apparatus and lack of funding for it, we are in a continual conundrum,” Mr. Deadman stated.

District officials are hoping to fill the funding gap with potential partnerships with surrounding fire departments and being extremely conservative with the funds they do have.

“There are still many unknowns as we have not seen any projections for PSPRS, health care costs, workman’s comp costs or what our NAV will be for the coming budget year,” Mr. Deadman stated.

Workman’s compensation is a potential big hit in the coming years as there have been many firefighters in Arizona and across the nation come down with occupational cancer.

“This is quickly becoming a national epidemic for firefighters, as we fight many new toxins during a fire in our modern-day homes,” Mr. Deadman stated. “We have heard many rumors that many insurance companies will stop or exorbitantly raise policy costs.”

Sun City Fire and Medical Department operates three fire stations with three fire engines, one ladder truck, one ladder tender, one battalion chief and four ambulances on duty every day. The department has a total of 96 paid employees, consisting of a fire chief, fire marshal, fire inspector, one human resources officer, one finance officer, an EMS coordinator, a fire prevention assistant, 68 firefighters, two part-time receptionists and 24 ambulance personnel.

“During a day, 24 hours, there are eight Ambulance personnel and 23 Firefighters on duty 24 hours per day,” Mr. Wilmes stated in an email.

The Sun City Fire and District is overseen by a five-person elected board of directors.

Each fire engine responds to calls within and outside the district 320 times per month. In 2018 Engine 133 had the most with 4,377 followed by Engine 132 with 4,136, Engine 131 with 3,264, Ladder Truck/Ladder Tender 131 with 2,943 anf the reserve truck with 376. Sun City units responded to 16,087, with 12,435 or those in-district, in 2018. In 2017 the call volume was 4,156 for Engine 132, 4,122 for Engine 133, 3,095 for Engine 131, 2,598 for the ladder vehicles and 217 for the reserve truck. The 2017 total call volume was 15,059, with 11,863 in-district.

Each Sun City ambulance transports from a scene to a hospital on average 165 times per month.

The Sun City department also has an active fire prevention bureau. In addition to Jim Fox, fire marshal, and Kenny Kovac, fire inspector, the fire prevention division relies on 14 volunteers.

“We can always use more volunteers because we get more and more requests and have more inspections each year,” Mr. Fox said.

The fire prevention staff do about 150 fire inspections each month, do plan reviews for new construction, do about 80 construction inspections per month and about 64 home safety surveys.

“Last year (2019) was the first time in five years that we completed an inspection on every commercial business in our district,” Mr. Fox stated in an email. “That is thanks to our ability to hire a new fire inspector who concentrates largely on annual fire inspections.”

The seven volunteer inspectors also played an important part, he added. In 2019 the fire prevention division conducted more than 2,000 initial inspections and those resulted in 2,100 fire code violations, according to Mr. Fox. All were brought into compliance, he added.

“Any fire code violation can be as contributing factor to a more serious situation if not addressed,” Mr. Fox stated. “As new businesses arrive in our district and new construction activities take place, our work load consistently increases.”

In addition to the fire inspection volunteers, the department has five community service volunteers as part of the prevention division. Those volunteers completed residential lock box installations and key changes along with installing smoke detectors in homes.

“In 2019 we began the year with a Four-month waiting period for lock box installations largely due to the low number of volunteer installers,” Mr. Fox stated. “During 2019, we received many hours of assistance from our off-duty firefighters and the Sun City Posse to get us caught up to a ‘current’ status, which means the wait for a lock box installation is only about two weeks at this time.”

Sun City fire district officials want the public informed and involved in its operation, according to Mr. Deadman.

“We encourage all of our residents to come to a board meeting and learn about our daily activities,” he stated. “We also have a need for volunteers in our fire prevention department to assist with inspections for the fire marshal.”

The fire district board meets twice per month. There is a workshop or special meeting scheduled, as needed, 9:30 a.m. the second Tuesday each month at the district headquarters, 18602 N. 99th Ave., and the regular business meeting is 9:30 a.m. the third Tuesday of the month. The next fire board meeting is 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21.