Pima History

During the 1950's, Pima County had two securiy services that also provided fire service. Pima Security covered Campbell Rd west. Catalina Security covered Campbell Rd east. Catalina's Station was at Tanque Verde & Wrightstown (R/MFD's 1st Pima Station).Somewhere around 1960 or 61, the companies went defunct, leaving most of Pima County without fire service. Two fire districts had formed - Drexel Heights and Flowing Wells, however, the rest of the county had nothing.

After a tragic house fire in Indian Ridge circa 1961 or 62, community members petitioned R/MFD to come to Pima County. Rural had planned to open in early 1963, however, PCSO requested they open prior to New Years 1962. The 1st engine and two firefighters opened the last week of 1962, utilizing the PCSO sub-station at Camino Seco & Broadway as their station. Station 1 was then opened at Tanque Verde & Wrightstown in Feb 1963

STATIONS

PC Stations were originally numbered by their respective openings.

1. Tanque Verde (7810 E. at Wrightstown Rd). Opened in 1963
2. Ina & Oracle (245 W) Opened May 1963
3. Green Valley (??? Esperanza Blvd) Opened circa 1969
4. Benson Hwy (4445 E) The original TTT Truck Stop before I-10 was built.
5. Tucson Estates (3131 S Kinney Rd) Opened 1971
6. Sunrise & Swan (5760 N Swan)
7. Camino Del Cerro (4145 W). Opened in 1973

{Editor’s Note – each station can have its own history page if photos and info are submitted}

Under the Statewide Battalion numbers of the early 70’s – station numbers changed from – to:

1. – 41
2. - 40
3. - 50
4. - 42
5. - 43
6. - 44
7. - 45

Later Station Openings never had a single digit number.

• Sta 46 (opened 1977 ???) address (15780 Oracle Rd) – Catalina
• Sta 47 (opened 1979 ???) 3761 W Cromwell at Thorneydale

MANAGEMENT

In the early 70’s, PC had 7 stations in 2 Battalions (4 & 5), under the management of County 2 (Bill M – office at Sta 2) . B4 was Cas K (office at Sta 44) and B5 was Ken B (Sta 50). Both battalions had Lieutenants with offices located in stations identified by their designator – Lt 41 – Ben O, Lt 42 – Fred R, and Lt 50 – Chuck E.

APPARATUS

Apparatus rosters in summer 1974: (all numbers are shop numbers)

• Sta 40 – E-59, T-71 (aka Creeping Jesus), Attack 45
• Sta 41 – E-15, TP-22, E-11 (a small engine used for a brush truck). Shop 62 arrived in summer of that year and TP-22 was on its way out, being replaced by T-821.
• Sta 42 – E-80, and T-73
• Sta 43 – E-46 and E-99
• Sta 44 – E-810 (a 250 gpm only, the front mount pump was added later)
• Sta 45 – E-816 (re-chassied E-4, high pressure only – the front mount pump was added later), and often times E-64 (aka – Pepina) Pepina got passed around as it was our best reserve engine.
• Sta 50 – E-48, E-96, Ambulance 82 (Chevy Van) and Ambulance (Unk # Cadillac)

In 1974, baffles were the new invention. Some of the trucks had them, some did not. T-73 had them since it was just repaired. It had been a round top, baffle-less tanker, now it was a flat top, baffled tanker – after it rolled at PV & Benson. T-71 was baffled sometime in early 1975.

American LaFarce Corporation (another name for Station 41 – where many of the trucks were modified and front mounts were added (821, 816, 810). Station 41 had 220 power, a master welder (Lt. Ben O) and a crew willing to assist. Just about every truck in the Battalion had modifications done by American LaFarce.

DISPATCH

There were no dedicated dispatchers, all calls were self-dispatched. Every firefighter (including reserves) had to know how to dispatch a call. Dispatch was actually the first thing taught to new firefighters. The emergency phone (296-5441 and later 299-1411) would ring simultaneously into Sta’s 40, 41, 42 & 44. Each station had a klaxon (very loud buzzer – loud enough to crack the walls) tied to the emergency number. All four on-duty FF’s would pick up the phone on the 3rd ring. Sta 42 did the talking (answering with "Fire Dept – do you have an emergency?"). As soon as you would hear the address, you would quietly hang up the phone and head out, Sta 42 would continue to get the info and then dispatch the call. If the call was in Sta 42’s area, Sta 41 would take over and finish getting the info and dispatch the call. The Tucson Business Office was located in the front room of Sta 42, so M-F from 8-5, the office manager (Pat M) would dispatch for Sta 42. Sta 42 may never have had and certainly never used any call signs (???) but Sta 41 was KDC-297. All officers and off-duty full-time firefighters had pagers. Officers were on one pager tone. Off-duty firefighter pagers had individual tones that could also be all-called with one long tone. When any call in 41 or 42’s area came in, any time of night or day (except during business hours) someone had to be called in to become a backup dispatcher. For example, if Sta 42 had a big call, Sta 41 would dispatch and then immediately go down the reserve list calling until someone came into either Sta 41 or 42 to act as dispatcher if Sta 41 got a call. Reserves were integral part of the dispatch capabilities.

Sta 43 & 45 were not on the main emergency number. They each had their own emergency phones tied to a klaxon. Sta 43’s was mounted on the engine canopy – that metal would vibrate and could possibly be heard as far away as Sells. Sta 45’s klaxon was mounted in the living room. Made good for the heart when the FF was sitting quietly in the evening watching TV and that klaxon would go off. After the dispatch station collected all the call info, the FF would have to call Sta 43 or 45 on their emergency number and relay the information.

Sta 50 was self-dispatched (KSQ-330). They could rely on Tucson for radio back up if needed. Their emergency line was capable of being call forwarded to Tucson. Because ambulances were used in GV, there were always two FF’s on shift.

Battalion 6 in Nogales had 1 station - Sta 60, (Unk address) and operated on the same frequency. Only on occasion could B6 operations be heard in Tucson. Mostly when Ambulance 60 would contact Tucson dispatch when transporting a patient to Tucson. Occasionally Pumper 60 (Shop 68) could be heard.

After the business office moved out of Benson Hwy (to 1st Ave unknown date 1975???) dispatch moved from Sta 42 to Sta 40. The County 2 position was eliminated and B4 moved from Sta 44 to Sta 40. Sta 40 did have call signs (???)

Circa 1977 (???), B4 hired an office assistant that aided in dispatch. In late 77 or early 1978(???), dedicated dispatchers were hired for the night shift due only to the initiation of a security contract. By late 1978 (???) we had 24-hour dispatch working out of Sta 40. However, the main radio transmitter was actually at Sta 45, connected to Sta 40 via dedicated phone line (this made for some good pranks). With this connection, they also installed an automatic Morse code type call sign transmitter. The logical step was to move the dispatchers to Sta 45 in the master bedroom where they remained until the 1985 addition to the station putting dispatch behind the new truck bays.

Up until the mid-80’s, Pima County had only two frequencies. F-1 was used for all dispatch, business and fire response, F-2 (the repeater – KFE-22) was only used to talk to an engine responding way out of town, to back up GV dispatch or to communicate with Scottsdale (KFE-21).

RESPONSE AREAS

Response Areas in 1970’s – Sta 40 covered Tucson’s NW side, including Catalina, and Marana to the Silverbell Mountains. Sta 41 covered from Craycroft east and south to Colossal Cave and only to MP 4 (last turn-around until Bear Canyon) on Mt. Lemmon. Sta 42 covered everything from Country Club east to Benson on I-10 and part way down Nogales Hwy. Station 43 had Tucson Estates and everything west. Sta 44 had pretty much the smallest area, from Craycroft west to Campbell. Sta 45 had the west bank of the Santa Cruz from Broadway north to Avra Road. Station 50 covered everything south of Hughes Access Road on Nogales Hwy to Lakewood, including Madera Canyon.