PHOENIX — State leaders broke ground Friday on a new dispatch center for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management in north Phoenix.
The new Arizona Dispatch Center will be located near Interstate 17 and Pinnacle Peak Road.
Department officials say the new 7,000-square-foot facility will be almost three times larger than the current facility and incorporate state of the art technology for wildfire tracking and monitoring.
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“The current center is outdated and has outgrown our intended needs,” DFFM’s Fire Management Officer John Truett said. “The new building allows us to provide a more comfortable, yet state-of-the-art working space for our dispatchers and increased operating space for our agency’s command and general staff. The new Arizona Dispatch Center will also serve as a central command center for fire overhead to work under one roof during critical incidents, allowing for more efficient internal and external communications.”
Governor Katie Hobbs was on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony Friday.
"I can't overstate how important it is to have this facility that will allow all the personnel to be in one location," Hobbs said. "It allows for smoother operation, faster execution of decisions, sharing of critical information and better oversight and troubleshooting, all things that are critical when we're in the middle of a major incident."
Funding for the project was allocated in HB 2001 special session legislation after the Telegraph and Mescal Fires in 2021.
The new dispatch center is expected to be completed by October.
