PEORIA, AZ — The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is ‘looking into’ concerns from the state’s largest firefighter union about a Valley fire department’s online fundraising efforts and claims about its capabilities.
The fire department in question is called Rampart County Fire Department.
The agency, which claims to operate in nearly every Arizona county, gets its name from the 1970s show ‘Emergency!’
“It caught my attention because of the show ‘Emergency,’” said David Clinkenbeard, an Arizona firefighter. “The [TV] hospital was Rampart.”
Clinkenbeard said he was surprised and skeptical to see the department, with a suite address in Peoria, fundraising on social media.
“I was on TikTok scrolling, and I came across them,” said Clinkenbeard. “[The chief] has a badge and uniform and radios and an emergency vehicle, with lights and sirens, and it looks legit.”
When ABC15 asked Don Jongewaard, president of the “Professional Firefighters of Arizona” union, about RCFD, he started doing research.
“We've called some other departments, and nobody knows who they are,” said Jongewaard.
Not long after those calls, Jongewaard sent a letter to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office requesting an “immediate investigation” into the department.
In the letter, he pointed out that the department’s website claims:
- It has ten personnel and 15 volunteers
- It serves nearly every county in Arizona
- It operates a regional dispatch center
”I'm just not seeing any evidence that they are doing what they say they're doing, and that they are what they say they are,” said Jongewaard.
Jongewaard said he was concerned, “because they are actively asking for money and donations.”
At the time, in early June, the RCFD website had two donation portals. One was fundraising for a ‘First Fire Truck.’ While the other was soliciting ‘Disaster Relief Donations.’
Jongewaard also documented a few of Rampart’s TikTok videos that said donations were needed “to send firefighters to disasters” in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
“I've never seen or heard of them in any of those situations,” said Jongewaard.
ABC15 reached out to Nick Smith and his co-founder and partner, Christina Smith, to discuss their website.
“We didn't just get a search-and-rescue dog, make the shirts, and then start a website,” said Christina.
During an hour-long interview in mid-June, the couple explained their operations.
“So we have two different companies,” said Christina. “We have a for-profit company, which does the non-emergency medical transport.” That for-profit company is called Rampart County Fire Department.
According to The Arizona Department of Health Services, the business is considered a "non-regulated fire department,” which means they can transport people in an ambulance, but not if it is an emergency.
The couple’s non-profit operation, which got IRS approval in 2020, is Rampart County Fire Department Disaster Response.
On their website and social media, the Smiths do not clearly differentiate between the for-profit and non-profit operations.
“We use the same social media for both of them,” said Christina.
The RCFD website stated the department had four fire stations, which the ABC15 Investigators asked the Smiths about during an interview this summer.
“You said you staff four fire stations,” said Zach Crenshaw.
“Yes,” said Nick.
“So tell me about those,” said Crenshaw.
“We have a corporate station that we have out here, and that's down the road. We rent a desk from a family member that lets us use it for our purposes,” said Nick.
“That's not a fire station,” said Crenshaw.
“No,” replied Nick.
The website also stated RCFD is “an organization utilizing thousands of employees.” “Do you have any employees?” asked Crenshaw.
“We have about five to six employees,” said Nick.
“How often are you paying them?” asked Crenshaw.
“So they get paid right now–the business isn't functional at this point, because well, our medical transport side went down,” replied Nick.
After more back-and-forth, Smith acknowledged they do not have any employees on payroll. The couple did say they had a number of volunteers.
They also claimed to operate a ‘Regional Dispatch Center.’
“We have our own nationwide communication system and structure that we set up,” said Nick. “So we can be from here to Florida, and dispatch can hear us at anywhere and any time.”
In his letter to the attorney general, Jongewaard said “No such dispatch center appears to exist.” He went on to write, “Many people pass themselves off as first responders to bilk unaware and good-hearted citizens out of donations, the breadth of this apparent fraud is breathtaking.”
“A lot of the fire departments, they're going to look at anybody who tries to say that they are a fire service or anything as a fraud,” said Nick, dismissing outside criticism during our interview.
“We wanted to also give back to the community and do search and rescue stuff, and, obviously, you have to fundraise as well to get some equipment,” said Christina.
When asked about why parts of his website claimed Rampart has facilities, employees, and services that don’t exist, Nick replied, “When I built the website myself, from the ground up, a lot of it was taking templates and manipulating it. However, five years, 10 years down the road, I don't want to have to keep going back and adding little things here and there.”
“We could fix that,” Christina later said. “There was a time we did have multiple offices, and we could, you know, fix that and stuff.”
Hours after our interview, the website went offline. When it came back online days later, the reference to four fire stations had been changed to one, links to donate were gone, and the references to thousands of employees disappeared.
“So the main thing that people need to take away from this is that we're not stepping on toes, we're not running into burning structures and saying that we're active firefighters,” said Nick.
On TikTok though, it was a different tune.
“Please don't do anything stupid to get your bits blown off and make us work,” said Nick, in a selfie on the Rampart County Fire Department’s TikTok page. “We already are going to be responding to fires because people are starting fireworks where they're not supposed to be.”
After our interview in mid-June, Nick and Christina told ABC15 they purchased a 1988 fire truck from a man in their neighborhood. They also said they are planning to fix up their old ambulance and will deploy to disasters across the country if able.
As for Jongewaard’s letter requesting an investigation, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office told ABC15, “Attorney General Mayes takes allegations of fraud very seriously, and the Attorney General’s Office is looking into the issues raised by the Professional Firefighters of Arizona.”
