The Groom Creek Fire District has registered with Fire Corps, a national volunteer program created after the September 11th incident. Under this program, the President urged Americans to get involved locally with their emergency service providers.
This initiative has taken on many forms throughout the United States and has evolved into a format that we can now adopt for the Groom Creek area. Beginning in July, the Groom Creek Fire Corps will be established to provide non-emergency support to the residents within the Groom Creek Fire District. We will have positions for volunteers to respond to assist with smoke detector installation, provide traffic control on emergency incidents, help with administrative tasks, perform Firewise Community public education and operate fund-raising events for the Groom Creek Firefighter’s Association. Volunteers will be scheduled one four-hour shift per week.
The Groom Creek Firefighter’s Association is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization created to provide assistance to the career and volunteer
firefighters, their families and the community. We will be using this auxiliary organization to provide assistance to those in our community who are in need with things like transportation needs during winter storms, ensuring our neighbors have fuelwood for heat, continuing to improve our community park and ultimately making Groom Creek a better place to live.
Training will be provided to all volunteers and you will only be asked to perform in those tasks that you are trained and are comfortable performing. Anyone with administrative experience will be able to assist in many ways providing office support. We have plenty of opportunities available.
Assistant Chief Manzanedo will be supervising the Groom Creek Fire Corps program. Please contact him at 928-778-6519 for details.
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The Groom Creek Fire District has been applying for grants and funding this year as in the past. We are working on fuels project funding from the Economic Stimulus Package that will provide us the ability to operate a 3 person fuels crew for the next year and beyond. This funding comes without the traditional matching funds requirements and will allow us to provide the fuels reductions services at little or no cost to our residents. Our decision to move away from the grants we had been receiving was made to shore up our financial position as we were looking forward to needing financing capabilities for the new station.
There is funding coming from many sources that we will pursue for our new Fire Stations on Spruce Mountain and new Main Fire Station on Senator Highway and Marapai Road. We have applied for a grant from the US Department of Homeland Security for $1,150,000 for the main station. We should hear more about this application in the summer. We have entered into an agreement with the US Forest Service to provide the space for a Forest Service Engine Crew to work out of our station. This agreement will help us to provide an increased level of wildfire protection to our community. Engine 3-2 has began the process of moving in and will be staffing their engine year-round. Engine 3-2 is a smaller (Type 6) engine with a 5 person crew. Once our new station is built on Senator Highway, we will provide the facilities for this crew at that location.
During our Firewise Day Activities this year, we will be showcasing some of the new equipment we have received from our grants during the past year. We will have demonstrations with vehicle extrication and stabilization, a thermal imaging camera, cardiac monitor and fire extinguishers. If you would like to see how fortunate we have been to receive all of the new equipment and would like to learn how to effectively use a fire extinguisher, please take some time to stop by on April 25th. The demonstrations will begin at 10:00 am.
Lastly, we have begun the budget process for the next fiscal year and encourage you to attend the Board meetings in the next few months if you would like to know how we are appropriating our revenues.
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Captain - Paramedic Luke Wakefield has been a member of the Groom Creek Fire District since 2002. He was initially hired as a volunteer firefighter and then as a defensible space contractor. Luke was promoted to Captain when we hired our first full-time personnel in July of 2006.
Since then, Captain Wakefield has successfully completed the paramedicine program at Yavapai College and became the District’s first Paramedic. Luke and his wife Brooke have a young daughter and live in the Groom Creek area.
Luke level of professionalism and knowledge of Emergency Medical Service has proven to be invaluable to the fire district and the residents of our community.
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The Groom Creek Park Committee has received a very generous $20,000 donation from a community resident. There will be playground equipment and landscaping installed in the park before the end of spring. Since the fund raising for the park is now complete, the members of this committee will assume the fund raising duties for the Groom Creek Firefighter’s Association. All funds raised in the future will be used for the purpose of supporting our firefighters, their families, members of our community and other charities as the organization deems appropriate.
The Groom Creek Firefighter’s Association will be meeting regularly to discuss the upcoming events. There are many possibilities being explored at the present time. If you would like to provide input, this organization meets the first Monday of every month at 4:00 p.m. at the Fire Station. Although this organization has the same Board as the Fire District Board, we want the efforts of the Firefighter’s Association to meet the needs of our firefighters, their families, the community and our residents.
If you know of a special need in the community where the fund raising efforts can be directed, please contact the members of the association. If you would like to join the fund raising committee please feel free to attend any of our meetings on the first Monday of the month.
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In the General Election held November 6, voters in the Groom Creek Fire
District approved the Ballot Question regarding the adoption of fire codes. The
measure passed with a vote of 58.5% to 41.5%. The codes will have no effect
on existing homeowners within the district. New construction will now have
to meet defensible space and tree density requirements as well as meeting
FireWise construction requirements.
The district will charge a fee for the plans review and code enforcement that will
help offset the costs of the newly filled position responsible for these activities.
Our Assistant Chief will serve as the Fire Marshal and Code Enforcement
Official.
If you are planning a new construction project in the district, we will be happy to
assist in the planning stages to facilitate the permit process and compliance with
the new requirements. If you would like to review the codes and/or get more
information about them, please contact Assistant Chief Manzanedo at 928-778-6519.
The ability for the Fire District to enforce open burning requirements and
restrictions is an advantage to having the codes in place. The County repealed
their codes relating to the fire restrictions and would not enforce any during the
last fire season. We should expect future fire seasons to be more severe in the
near future until a significant event ends the years of drought conditions.
Additionally, we will be able to require that new developments have an
adequate water supply, proper access in the event of an emergency and meet
FireWise principals in their vegetation management and construction. Also,
any new structures over 5,000 square feet will need to have an approved
sprinkler system.
The intention of adoption of the codes is to ensure life safety as well as to protect
the area from the effects of a devastating wildland fire event as we have seen
recently in California. All of the same conditions that contributed to thousands
of homes lost in the last month are present in our area in our most critical time of
our fire season.
Read more on the fire codes.
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