A Fire Districts primary obligation is to the residents who support the fire district through property taxes.

 A Fire Districts primary obligation is to the residents who support the fire district through property taxes. 

The Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District, LMRFD only covers 144 square miles in the communities of Dolan Springs and Meadview, but not the parcels between the two communities.

In the past when the LMRFD had 6 ambulances and lots of volunteers the LMRFD ambulance CON was tasked to cover 2200 square miles. That's 2056 square miles larger than the 144 sm fire district. That's larger than all other fire district ambulances in the county, and even runs into parts of Coconino County.

 

The red line on the map below is the 2200 square mile area the LMRFD ambulance is required to cover. The blue squares are all the fire districts in Mohave County. The big blue square and the smaller one inside the red line are the areas covered by the Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District Ambulance

As you can see the area covered by the LMRFD's one ambulance is larger than the area covered by all other fire district ambulances combined, it even runs up into Coconino County.

At one time the LMRFD had 6 ambulances, several quick response rigs and lots of volunteers. The economy and some bad choices left the LMRFD with two EMT firefighters and a few volunteers and one ambulance capable of transporting patients. 

No other fire chief with such limited resources would ever send his only ambulance outside their fire district if it left their district with nothing. Residents in White Hills and West of US-93 get the same fire and EMS service, yet never pay a dime unless they have a fire or medical emergency. 

With Meadview such a checkerboard of parcels inside and outside of the fire district, I wonder how many times someone really checks if a parcel was in or out of the district after a fire to even send a bill for services.

Who would voluntarily choose to pay hundreds to thousands of dollars in property tax when they get the same services for free now? 

What Can We Do??

Stop responding to fires outside the fire district. Advise residents in White Hills and West of US-93 they are not in the LMRFD. We need to offer a subscription service charging $60 to $100 a year. If you're not on the paid list, they don't respond. This would generate revenue to hire and train additional EMS personnel. 

Like other fire districts reduce the ambulance CON to the area covered by the fire district. If people in the 2056 square miles outside the fire district want EMS service, pay a subscription service, start a fire district or start your own ambulance service. 

We can’t abandon the taxpayers in the LMRFD to respond to areas that have been repeatedly told they have no service and have rebuffed attempts to provide their own fire or EMS service. 

Our first duty is to our citizens. We have no contractual liability to respond to fires outside the fire district. White Hills and west of US93 are not in a fire district, we can't have a mutual aid agreement because they have no aid to offer. 

One of these days someone important will die because our only ambulance was miles outside the fire district, only then will things change.