Day 4- March 16, 2009

I checked out of the motel in El Paso just before 0700 hours and headed north on I-25 to catch I-10 into Phoenix. It was only 40 degrees when I left. The sun came up as I was heading north on I-25, but luckily it was to the passenger side of the car (and didn’t blind me like yesterday). I stopped at a truck stop in Las Cruces and picked up a street map of the area for my return trip.

I stopped in Lordsburg for an Egg McMuffin meal. I was surprised when it cost $5.25 at this particular McDonalds- a lot more than usual. When I was about 40 miles SE of Tucson I started hearing fire radio traffic. It sounded like Rural Metro had a big accident someplace- hopefully not anywhere along I-10. They asked for a helicopter to be put on standby, but I never heard them request it to resond.

I arrived in Tucson around 1130 hours and got off I-10 near the training complex on the far SE side of town (it’s a long ways out). I got gassed up ($1.899) on the way there and drove down the bumpy road that leads to two jails and the training complex. I pulled into the huge complex and saw a bunch of apparatus over by the “apparatus building” where they keep a lot of equipment and apparatus in a large six-bay drive thru building. I got photos of Engine 17 and 1 and Ladder 21 parked next to the building. I was introduced to a captain who took me over to the main building which is half police and half fire. It is huge. Directly behind that building are a physical fitness building and two training buildings (one for police, one for fire). Behind that is a residence building for police officers that come into Tucson for training. They reside in that building until their training is complete.

There is also a garage building for repairs and general maintenance of fire/police vehicles, a firing-range for police, pump pits, a huge training tower (of course) and a large driving test track with banked turns and a wet-skid area. The entire complex is just huge and very, very impressive. Nobody would tell me what it cost.

My guide took me back to the apparatus building and I got a poor shot of Haz Mat 1. Ladder 1 is using Ladder 21’s tower as Ladder 1’s tower is in for maintenance. Firefighters from E1, E17 and L1 were training with equipment off the Haz Mat rig. Everybody treated me like a king. I thanked everybody and as I was walking back to my car, an old ALF pumper.entered the complex. I got the firefighter to slow down enough so I could get a photo as he passed by.

As I left the complex, I noticed a pumper parked out back of Station 6 next door. I stopped in there to get a shot of Engine 6 parked out back. One of the firefighters said the station (built five years ago) may have to be closed because of budget problems. There aren’t that many buildings out in that area yet, but there are many new developments being built about three miles away.

I headed to new Station 22 at 6810 S. Alvernon Way. This station just opened in the last year in a newly developed area of the city (just NW of Station 6). The station reminds me of many of the newer LA City stations in that it is “L” shaped with two separate four-bay apparatus garages. Engine 22, Ladder 22, Technical Squad 22, and Ladder Tender 22 run out of the front-facing bay doors of the station. The Medic and Battalion Chief run out of the side-bay doors. This is the Technical Rescue station for the City of Tucson, which used to be at Station 10. All of the rigs and firefighters from Station 10 transferred to new Station 22. There still is an Engine 10 and Ladder 10 at the old station.

I asked the driver of Ladder 22 if it’s a little quieter in the new station. He said they averaged 35 runs a day at old Station 10. Now, he said, they’re lucky to get 10 runs a day at the new station. The engine and ladder alternate taking medical runs (which it sounded was the same for other stations with an engine and truck). It was getting near 1400 hours, so I decided not to stop at any more Tucson stations and instead head for Phoenix (so I could get in before rush hour. It’s about a 90-mile drive on a very busy section of the I-10 freeway.

I arrived in the Phoenix area around 1530 hours and headed to east Mesa to check into the motel. I tried phoning by nephew, but he’s probably coaching an Augsburg College baseball game right now. It was 83 with nary a cloud in the sky when I arrived at the motel just after 1600 hours. I drove around the area scouting a bit and bought a few groceries for the stay here.

As I’m finishing this report (around 1800 hours), Phoenix has a working fire at 56th Avenue & W McDowell Road in a two-story apartment building. When it was declared a working fire they sent about 10 additional pieces of equipment, including two additional engines, two battalion chiefs, a Utility rig, and other specialized stuff I couldn’t understand or write down fast enough. I need one of those small recorders with a quick play back. They rattle off companies so fast here- it’s almost mind boggling (my mind boggles anyways). The local TV news here just showed a live shot of the fire building with smoke coming trough the roof from their news helicopter. To show you how spread out this area is, that fire in Phoenix is 32 miles from the motel I’m staying at in Mesa.

Tomorrow I’ll be getting together with my nephew and his family and hopefully still have some time to do some buffing. I hope to stop at the Mesa shops in the morning. It’s supposed to be warm here the next few days- about 10 degrees above normal.