Photo By James Gilbert | Fire Chief Gerald Ball of the Yuma Fire Department (left), discusses with Lake...... read more read more
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The Martinez Lake Fire District (MLFD) will now “officially” be able to call upon the Yuma Proving Ground Fire Department (YPGFD) for help during times of emergencies - and in turn give it if asked - under the terms of a mutual aid agreement they recently entered.
Fire Chief Gerald Ball explained that while the YPGFD has aided the MLFD since its inception, the new document actually spells out a specific set of procedures and other details that together will allow for faster, smoother and more efficient responses.
“This is a historic milestone for our fire department and the Army’s relationship with its neighboring communities,” Ball said of the significance of the arrangement. “I have been out here for 32 years, and we have responded to countless incidents in the Martinez Lake area, but never had any formal document in place indicating we support those communities.”
While the two fire departments have always hand a shared verbal understanding to support each other, MLFD Fire Chief Jodi Little added that having a written formal agreement gives Martinez Lake area residents an additional peace of mind.
“It’s been an all-around advantage for our communities and is something that the Martinez Lake Fire District has been very appreciative of,” Little said. “There is no longer a gentleman’s handshake in the background.”
While touring YPG fire station #2 she went on to say that “for our taxpayers there has always been a question in the back of their minds that if there was no agreement in place, would the YPGFD still come if we needed them? We are partners now. With this agreement in place, it is a sure thing.”
The MLFD responds to Fisher’s Landing Resort, the area known as Dry Camp, both old and new Pruitt City, Martinez Lake Resort, Swede’s Hill and the North Shore.
Back in 1994 the Martinez Lake Fire District built its own fire station and contracted with the Rural Metro Fire Department to sell subscriptions for fire protection services to area residents and property owners.
Under that contract Rural Metro rented the fire station from the fire district and kept it staffed with firefighters and equipment. However, over the years many of the area’s residents cancelled their subscriptions.
With fewer customers in the area, Rural Metro informed the fire district that it would not be renewing its contract, which meant fire district officials would have to find an alternative.
After numerous meetings on the matter, the fire district concluded that that its best option was to implement a fire tax and use the revenue it generated to establish its own fire department, which it did in 2020.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are approximately 800 full-time residents in the Martinez Lake area, along with somewhere between 800 to 900 pieces of property.
However, only about 500 pieces of that property is on the tax rolls. The remainder are either on state or federal land, which makes them tax exempt. Additionally, the property that is on the tax roll is estimated to have about a hundred million dollars’ worth of valuation, which generates more than $250,000 annually in revenue for the fire district. Little said that the make-up of the Martinez Lake area has also drastically changed over the past decade or so, going from what was once mostly cabins and trailers to site built housing and custom-built homes.
“Our permanent structure footprint has grown, and it is going to continue to grow,” Little said. “The activity level out there is also increasing, with more permanent residents and campers coming in. Real estate development in the Martinez Lake and North Shore sectors is only going to continue to grow.”
Now with its first-ever mutual aid agreement finally formalized, Little said the MLFD will move forward with trying to get similar verbal understandings it currently has with other area agencies in writing as well.
In the meantime, the MLFD will benefit from mutual aid agreements the YPGFD already has in place with other firefighting agencies such as Rural Metro and the Imperial County and the City of Yuma Fire Departments.
“No department is infinite in its resources,” Ball said. “Establishing this agreement allows us to support the MLFD in a way that if an incident exceeds our own resources, we can reach out to other entities to respond with additional resources.”
The agreement, however, does more than just solidify what was an already strong partnership, it also allows both departments to do more together than they have been able to do in the past, such as conducting joint trainings and exercises.
While the YPGFD doesn’t typically ever have to call for assistance for incidents on the installation, where the MLFD’s help will come in handy the most is for responses off garrison, specifically for medical calls along Highway 95 and in other unpopulated areas in the vicinity.
“We don’t have infinite resources either, but we would be able to call on the MLFD if we need assistance as well,” Ball said.
| Date Taken: | 09.19.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 09.19.2023 13:32 |
| Story ID: | 453737 |
| Location: | YUMA , ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 248 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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Yuma Proving Ground
