SCOTTSDALE — The city of Scottsdale is preparing for a busy start to 2023.
Between Barrett Jackson, the Phoenix Open, and the Super Bowl in a three- to four-week span, Scottsdale Fire Captain Dave Folio said the city will be the place to be.
"The game's out there, but the party's in Scottsdale, let's face it," Folio said. "The Super Bowl comes into town, well, it kind of makes us giggle, like, ok, we have a Super Bowl every year, we do this every year, this isn't new to us."
Their "Super Bowl" as he refers to it, is the yearly Waste Management Phoenix Open. But all the added events happening around the same time, including the actual Super Bowl, mean extra preparations are going into place.
"It's been a yearlong process. It's a collaborative between all agencies across the Valley this year just because it's unique with the Super Bowl in town," he said. "It's going to be an all-hands-on-deck that week for us. We're going to ask our people to put in a lot of extra hours."
Folio said Scottsdale firefighters will mainly be focused on the Open, since they’re the Valley fire agency most familiar with the location. Almost a quarter of a million people, he said, will be there on any given day between that Wednesday and Saturday.
Scottsdale Fire will have equipment strategically placed around the course.
“You've got restaurants permanently stationed here, a lot of propane on site, a lot of cooking oils, so we strategically place a lot of fire equipment out on the course because you won't be able to get them in if something happens,” he said.
Then, other Valley agencies will help backfill Scottsdale stations with extra hands through the department’s automatic aid system in case of a call elsewhere in the city.
“We're not sending resources out to help, say, Glendale or Phoenix, we're actually going to be taking resources because of the amount of events we have in Scottsdale,” Folio said.
And when the parties make their way to Old Town, Folio said they’ll be ready for that too.
“Scottsdale’s the place to be and we're ready for all the tourists and the people that come to see these events to keep them safe and healthy.”
