The Groom Creek Firefighter’s Association will be holding our 3rd Annual Golf Tournament to raise tuition scholarship funds for our firefighters. The tournament will be held at Antelope Hills Golf Course in Prescott, AZ on April 28th. Local business owners are needed to support the tournament with Hole Sponsorships (for a mere $100 – we will provide an 11×17 sign with your business’ name and logo) or donations of raffle prizes in any amount.

Get more information and register for the golf tournament

We are hoping to have over 50 players this year and everyone is invited to participate as a player or sponsor. Please contact Todd Bentley at 928-778-6519 if you have any questions about the event.

During the past 6 months our personnel have been assisting with wildland fires from Texas to Montana. We were able to send 2 engines to the Wallow Fire in Arizona and sent a Firefighter to the Las Conchas Fire in New Mexico to work with an Incident Management Team as a single resource. These assignments have provided great experience for our crews that they would not get if they did not have the appropriate education and qualifications.

With our responses since February, we have been able to generate much needed revenue for the Groom Creek Fire District. We have generated $181,000 in revenue from personnel and equipment and have had to pay $95,267.95 in salaries, benefits and other wildland response expenses. This has provided us with $86,438.61 in net revenue. This amount represents about 17% of our annual budget and will be a great savings that will be applied towards the upcoming fiscal year’s budget. This revenue will help to ensure that we will avoid a reduction in our staffing as we have already found out that our budget will be decreasing by at least 13%.

We are reimbursed from the State of Arizona (with whom we have a Cooperative Agreement) for all responses. Our vehicles receive a standard rate that is paid based on the type of vehicle (i.e. Fire Engines, Water Tenders, Pickup trucks, etc.) Our personnel are paid a contracted rate per the agreement with the state. After a 14 day assignment our personnel are required to have two days of administrative leave which is also paid by the incident. When our full-time Captains and Firefighters are assigned, we are also able to charge for 50% of the backfill coverage to ensure that we maintain our staffing to protect Groom Creek.

If you have any questions about the Off-District Wildland Team, please feel free to contact the fire station.

The Apache-Sitgreaves Forest has issued a report on the effectiveness of fuels treatments in saving homes affected by the Wallow Fire. Wallow_Fuel_Treatment_Effectiveness[1] It is a very interesting report with photos and descriptions of the treated areas. The Wallow Fire is the largest fire in Arizona’s history.

Our fuels projects are designed to be at least as effective as these treatments were. If you have any questions about how you can prepare for wildland fires or what you can do to protect your home from fire, please contact the fire station or look at our fuels program pages.

Event though the “fire season” is over, we have not yet received the precipitation amounts necessary to ensure that the severity of a fire is eliminated completely.

If you would like to request a burn permit, the process has been simplified and standardized for the area served by the Prescott Regional Communications Center including the Groom Creek Fire District. You can simply go to the Burn Permits Page of the City of Prescott website to access the permit application and to report the beginning and ending of the burning each day. Each permit will be active for 30 days and you will only be able to request one or notify us that you will be burning when the fire danger conditions allow.

After the 30 day period has passed, you will have to re-apply. We hope this makes it easier for everyone. If you do not have internet access you can stop by the fire station and request a burn permit at the station. It will still need to be completed online.

Effective at 0800 on Wednesday May 11, the Groom Creek Fire District will be entering Fire Restrictions that mirror the restrictions taking effect on County, State and Federal lands in the Prescott area. These restrictions will cancel all outstanding burn permits. More details will be added.

At the Groom Creek Firewise Day, we made a special dedication of the Groom Creek Park to one of our original Pinehurst Estates volunteer firefighters and long-time Board Member, Mr. Jack Maze. The park will now be known as “Jack Maze Park” and has a very nice granite plaque commemorating Mr. Maze’s service to this community. Mr. Maze passed away last October and is survived by his wife Helen. The Groom Creek Firefighter’s Association and the District are proud to make this dedication in his name.

Yavapai County Emergency Management has a web tool to enter your contact information in order to be notified in the event of an emergency. The County site has the ability to entercontact information for email, cell phone, office phone, fax and text message notifications. You can also enter any special medical needs and pets at your location for emergency responders to know.

Currently, the Fire District Dispatch office uses a reverse 911 system that only contacts land line phone numbers. With this new technology from the County, we can provide the proper notification to our community when an emergency happens. Please visit the website and get registered as soon as possible.

Emergency Notification System Link