A fire district is a political subdivision of the State, formed for the protection of persons and property in an area approved by the county.

No, the residents of Hidden Valley do.

The Districts are governed by elected boards. Fire district board members are elected to alternating four-year terms so at least two are elected every two years. The boards establish policy and approve annual budgets.

Districts are organized under the laws of the state of Arizona. They generate a majority of their revenues from a secondary property tax assessed on all real property.

There are lots of taxes based on property value, including the funding of the Hidden Valley Fire District.  The current contract is written to give Rural Metro automatic fee increases, which in turn automatically increase our property taxes.  Please look at your property tax statement and compare the yearly increases Hidden Valley Fire District has charged you. Here is the link to look up your property tax statement.  https://www.to.pima.gov/

The residents in Hidden Valley Fire District decided to take their emergency response into their own hands. In doing so a board was formed to negotiate terms of service with Rural Metro in exchange for a fee. The result is a contract for services. This arrangement gives the residents of Hidden Valley the authority to dictate specifics such as who provides these services to us, what that response model looks like, and how much we pay for it.

In Hidden Valley the response time is contracted with Rural Metro to be less than 7 minutes 80% of the time and less than 10 minutes 100% of the time. NFPA 1710 which is the guideline for response times is 5 minutes and 20 seconds. The 7-minute response time we have with Rural Metro is 1 minute and 40 seconds slower than that which is recommended by the NFPA.

No, If you click here you can see the response report for 2023. These numbers are not only non-compliant, but they are padded by saying the response time was met 100% of the time when there were no calls for service.

Rural Metro is significantly understaffed and has been for years, even with station closures. In addition, they do not have an appropriate number of fire stations to cover their response area effectively. This means when your closest fire truck or ambulance is not available, the next closest truck is significantly further away. 

Because of that the day-to-day costs are absorbed by the customers that do pay Rural Metro. This includes the Hidden Valley Fire District.

Nothing.

$0.9955 per $100 of secondary assessed value.

$194.00 – $837.00 per year, based on what zip code you live in and the square footage of your house.  Some zip codes are charged more, some are charged less. 

Rural Metro is a privately owned for-profit company that offers emergency and non-emergency responses to the community for an optional subscription fee. Many of the residents choose not pay this fee.

The tax rates are set each August by the County Board of Supervisors based on the direction of the Fire District Boards of Directors. The maximum tax rate allowed is $3.25 per $100 secondary assessed value.

Yes, if you itemize your tax deductions.

4300 N Kolb Rd. Rural Metro Station 73.

That varies from day to day. Between 3-6 based on what apparatus is staffed. “Minimum Staffing” for Rural Metro is one fire engine with three firefighters; one captain, one engineer, and one firefighter on the fire engine and one of those three is a paramedic.  There is no minimum staffing for an ambulance which allows for ambulances not to be staffed (termed out of service).

Yes, but it is not staffed daily. Only fire engines are staffed daily as that is the minimum.  When staffing allows, there is an ambulance assigned to station 73.  It is staffed with two firefighters. If a paramedic is available there will be a paramedic on the ambulance, otherwise the ambulance is staffed with two EMTs.

EMTs and Paramedics work under the medical direction of a doctor. This doctor decides what medical emergencies need to be transported to the hospital by a Paramedic or can be downgraded to an EMT. When the ambulance is not staffed with a paramedic, it requires the paramedic from the fire engine to have to “ride in” to the hospital on the ambulance. The domino effect of this causes the fire engine to be out of service since there are only now two firefighters on the fire engine.  The fire engine is unavailable for any other emergencies in the community as it is at the hospital with the ambulance.  This adds to the increased response times. 

The simply and most uncomplicated answer is Rural Metro is understaffed and has been for years. Rural Metro is a private corporation and their focus is not on the community or firefighters. This creates a unique firefighter recruitment and retention issue.

Yes. the regional standard is four firefighters on an engine. Rural Metro staffs with three. Tucson Fire, Golder Ranch Fire District, Northwest Fire District, and Santa Rita (formally Green Valley) Fire District all staff with four firefighters on each engine. The industry standard per NFPA 1710 is four firefighters per fire engine.

The National Fire Protection Association or NFPA was establish in 1896. The provided the standards for almost everything that has to do with the fire service. These standards keep the public and the firefighter as safe as possible when responding to the community for help. Please watch this short video to see learn what the industry standard is and why it is important.

Rural Metro won’t follow the industry and local fire districts’ staffing model because of labor costs and reduced profits.   This among other business decision that do not meet regional standards has also caused Rural Metro Rural to be excluded from the Automatic Aid agreement with the neighboring departments.  Inclusion in the Automatic Aid agreement with the other local departments would decrease response times. 

Yes.  Our neighboring agencies follow these minimum staffing levels in order to ensure appropriate number of firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics are on duty at each station each day.

Automatic aid is a system were neighboring Fire Departments and Fire Districts work together to better serve the community. Rural Metro does not participate in Automatic aid because they refuse to meet the minimum standards the other Fire Departments and Districts adhere to.

Call Rural Metro.

Start by electing Trevor Mulligan to the Hidden Valley Fire District Board. Trevor will be the voice and advocate for Hidden Valley and the Residents who live here.