- Nerve center of state firefighting efforts is based at Papago Military Reservation.
This summer, Arizona has already lost, and continues to lose, some of the state’s most pristine wilderness and natural beauty.
Even with local fire departments in full force, insufficient resources have been available to fight the recent outbreaks, most notably the Wallow Fire in northeastern Arizona and the Monument Fire near Sierra Vista.
On June 7, the Arizona Department of Emergency Management opened its Emergency Operation Center in Phoenix to help coordinate statewide efforts to combat the wildfires.
Key to those efforts is a new task force formed earlier this month under the Arizona All-Hazard Incident Management Team, made up of firefighting personnel from all over the U.S.
“We are the number-one priority in the United States right now,” said Mike Reichling, public information officer for the Tempe Police Department and a south Tempe resident.
Reichling is a key member of the combined operation.
“The Monument Fire, the Wallow Fire and the Horseshoe II Fire are number one in the country.”
Six task force crews were organized to help with initial firefighting efforts.
“We have depleted all of our local resources; this was the main reason for creating the task force crews,” Reichling said. “We came up with a brand new strategy the state wanted to employ.”
Reichling is senior fire inspector and investigator for Tempe and works with the broader state effort under the Arizona Division of Emergency Management and Arizona State Forestry.
Each task force team consists of a firefighter crew, at least five engines, initial-attack hand crews and a water tender that holds an average of 3,500 gallons of water, Reichling said.
Their main goal: moving in fast on the fire, employing rapid-action suppression methods and then quickly turning the effort over to a full crew of firefighters.
“We go in, stomp out the fire and come back (to our command post),” Reichling said.
Task force personnel are stationed across the state, ready to be dispatched by the Forestry Department and staff working around the clock at the Emergency Operations Center at 52nd Street and McDowell, which also houses the Arizona National Guard.
“We have task forces in the east Valley, Payson, Wickenburg and right here in Phoenix,” Reichling said.
“We can send them out within a moment’s notice through our dispatch system.”
As of June 21, two task force crews were helping to battle the Monument Fire, with one crew in Payson to fill in behind Forest Service crews combating the Willow Fire that started June 19. The task force teams will be implemented throughout the summer, Reichling said.
“We have burned 1.4 million acres just in the Southwest region, which includes half of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona,” he said.
“The highest we’ve ever had was 1.2 million (acres), and we’re just beginning this year. We haven’t even gotten into the monsoon season.”
With the Fourth of July weekend coming up, the risk for more fires is only going to increase.
“We’re very concerned over the legalization of consumer fireworks,” Reichling said. “The fuels are just too dry right now, and it only takes one spark and it’s off to the races.”
