PHOENIX — The Phoenix Fire Department sounded the alarm in 2022.
“I believe with our plan we could hold the line if you would, but we would anticipate without support, response would continue to creep up as we’ve seen over the last several years,” Executive Assistant Fire Chief Scott Walker said during a public safety and justice subcommittee hearing in November of 2022.
Fast-forward and the concerns outlined in that meeting are now even more pressing.
“We’re at that point where we are able to support the EMS and Fire needs of our community, but we’re pretty much right at that top limit where we want to be,” said Phoenix Fire Captain Rob McDade, adding that “the works being done, but it does look like it’s at a very critical point.”
ABC15 spoke with the United Phoenix Firefighters Union last week — they said firefighters are overworked, response times are nearing crisis levels and stations are seeing record-high call volume.
While Captain McDade acknowledged the need for more resources, he says they’re making progress to remedy the situation.
“In a perfect world, we need 10 new stations, we need 2,400 firefighters, we need 60 more support staff, probably to the tune of 325 million [dollars],” McDade told ABC15. “Within that number, we want to get to, we’re getting there — we need 10 [fire stations], but six are on the way, we need 2,400 firefighters, we have 1,800, we’re going to have 2,000 within a couple years.”
To acquire more funding, the firefighter union is suggesting a sales tax increase of two-tenths of a cent.
“Ongoing annual revenue increase to the fire department budget by about 100 million dollars a year, two-tenths of one penny would roughly get us there. That’s what we need,” said Bryan Willingham, President of the United Phoenix Firefighters Local 493.
For every $100 spent, you’d tack on an extra 20 cents to that purchase. When asked Monday, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego would not commit to supporting a sales tax increase.
“We really need to understand it’s a balance right now - we have to look at all the needs of our community. We’re hearing a lot from residences that things are expensive right now and so we have to have a real conversation while people are looking at their budget, what makes sense and be very thoughtful,” Mayor Gallego said, adding that the “city was very hurt by the state legislator’s decision to cut 90 million from our budget.”
Those budget cuts are a result of the legislators’ decision to eliminate the rental tax.
“This is a tax cut that comes in next year - it’s $90 million for the city of Phoenix. If the legislator would just work with us we could deliver the great service we need without a tax increase,” Mayor Gallego told ABC15.
In the meantime, Captain McDade assured the Phoenix Fire Department has enough resources to continue to meet the needs of the community.
“We are running our firetrucks, our emergency response system exactly where we want to,” Captain McDade said. “We’re just looking at more extended response times in some areas on particular calls, but for the most part all our firetrucks are in service, we have enough firefighters to staff all our firetrucks.”
He added, “Phoenix Fire Department executive staff, city council — we understand what’s in front of us, and we truly believe measures are in place to solve this problem in the next few years.”
