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.

You can drop off food donations during regular business hours at our station on Friendly Pines Rd.  For more information on the Yavapai Food Bank follow this link.  Thank you for your support of this great program.

This schedule is tentative and subject to change at any time.  It is for informational purposes and is not intended as a commitment.

A home that survived the 500,000 acre Wallow Fire, becasue of the defensible space the homeowners created

Every October as the weather starts to cool, the brown needles from the Ponderosa Pines start to fall along with the leaves of all the other trees.  This creates quite a fire hazard for private property across the Bradshaw Mountains.  We are now to the point that we are experiencing significant wildland fires year-round in Arizona.  Only two weeks ago we had the 20 acre wildfire called the Lookout Fire just about 1 mile outside of our fire district.  We can expect this fire danger to stay here until we get a significant amount of rain or snow accumulation.

In the mean time, it is very important for homeowners to maintain their defensible space around their properties.  There are a few major steps you can take this winter to make sure your property is as safe as possible.

• Make sure that your roofs and gutters are void of any pine needles or leaves.
• Rake at least 30 feet out from the buildings on your property.  On steeper slopes we recommend raking as far out as 75 feet.
• Store firewood at least 30 feet away from the house.
• Make sure you have a clean chimney and good spark arrestor.
• Store fireplace ashes in a safe container.  Cardboard boxes and plastic buckets are not safe containers.

Traditionally, we have had a crew that can asssist you in getting this work done.  The crew is now unavailable for pine needle raking.

There are several services available to you this year:

• We have a dumpster that is at the fire station that is free of charge for residents of our community.  You can haul as many pine needles and leaves as you can fit.
• We also have Jeff Archer who is available to come out to your property after you have done the work and give you a firewise assesment to make sure that your property is as defendable as possible.
• Some of our employees are interested in making some extra money by raking on the weekends.

If you are interested in these services or have any questions please call the firehouse at 928-778-6519

This schedule is tentative and subject to change at any time.  It is for informational purposes and is not intended as a commitment.

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.

At this time we are happy to announce that the Groom Creek Fire District has recently been awarded state funded grant that will  provide our residents an additional dumpster this year to support  their  Fall clean up efforts.

Just like our Spring/ Summer dumpster, only pine needles and leaf litter are permitted.

Remove all plastic bags and other containers  used in the transportation of your appropriate yard materials to the dumpster.

Please do not forget to fill out your “sweat equity” forms to document every time you use our dumpster. It is by collecting these forms that we are able to continue this very valuable service for our community members.

Thank you for your continued support of this very successful wildfire prevention program.