Scottsdale Fire Chief Tom Shannon will outline the department’s future wildfire mitigation strategies at the next City Council meeting set for Monday, Aug. 25.
The presentation will focus on the potential expanded use of fire retardants, collaboration with state agencies to coordinate response and new volunteer opportunities aimed at bolstering community resilience.
Mayor Lisa Borowsky welcomes the presentation as a timely and essential step in preparing Scottsdale for the increasing threat of wildfire. In fact, Mayor Borowsky suggested to Chief Shannon several months ago that a volunteer wildfire brigade be organized under the auspice of the department to assist in preventing and stopping wildfires.
Despite both the chief and the city manager expressing initial enthusiasm, members of the City Council, having learned of the idea, worked quickly to kill it behind the scenes.
City Council members offered various objections, none of which were supported by fact.
In emails obtained via public records requests, Vice Mayor Jan Dubauskas dispatched a terse two-line statement to City Manager Greg Caton and Chief Shannon: “This is a terrible idea. Surprised you went along with it.”
Barry Graham offered his own opinion: “I think there are plenty of other ways the city can raise awareness of fire prevention and education.”
Following those comments the fire chief and the city manager sent emails retracting support.
“The objections raised by City Council members centered on liability, training and resources,” Mayor Borowsky said. “Proving they either don’t know or don’t care that volunteers are not only an integral but proud and dominant component of the firefighter community.”
A few key statistics, courtesy of the National Volunteer Fire Council include:
Volunteers comprise 65% of firefighters in the United States. Of the total estimated 1,041,200 firefighters across the country, 676,900 are volunteers.
Of the total 29,452 fire departments in the country, 18,873 are all volunteers; 5,335 are mostly volunteers; 2,459 are mostly career; and 2,785 are all career.
This means that about 82% of U.S. fire departments operate primarily with volunteer firefighters.
The time donated by volunteer firefighters saves localities across the country an estimated $46.9 billion per year.
“It is no secret that council members opposed the volunteer fire brigade for one reason,” Mayor Borowsky points out. “Because I suggested it. Never mind the public good, never mind their responsibilities. Their petty selfishness and ambitions are all that count.”
The mayor looks forward to hearing what the chief has to say.