Posted October 28, 2022
My office hosted a meet and greet with Charles Ryan, our chief of the Tucson Fire Department this week.
Ryan has been our chief for a little over three years and has continued a standard of excellence established by his predecessor. For example, Tucson has one of the highest heart attack survival rates in the nation. That’s because of both the quick response time of TFD, but also the training standards demanded by the department. The expertise they have acquired is so strong that some recent changes to the standards for CPR training were developed through a partnership between the University of Arizona medical school and Tucson Fire Department.
Since not all of you were able to attend on Wednesday, here are some things that Tucson Fire was able to do for our Ward 2 neighbors last year:
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There were 8,371 basic life support calls in our ward. These include incidents that would be treated with CPR, the Heimlich Maneuver or an AED.
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TFD responded to 5,659 advanced life support calls. These calls involve a lot more training than BLS calls and include respiratory issues and strokes.
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There were 85 structure fires in Ward 2, including the fire at the Walmart on Speedway and Kolb last December. Engine 16, located in the same complex with my office, was the first on the scene. In all, 34 firefighters responded and got the fire under control in twenty minutes. Despite that, $20 million in damage was done to the building.
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There were 2,021 other calls in Ward 2. These range from assisting invalid patients to brush fires to investigating odors.
Chief Ryan took time to talk about Station 21 on Tanque Verde Road. I wrote about this in the newsletter in the past after a story had gone around about the station being closed. I’d like to reiterate that it wasn’t.
At the time, there was an issue with staffing levels, so there was a reduction in personnel at the station. Because of the way scheduling of time-off and overtime had been handled, there was often only a rescue truck in that station. Because of this, Chief Ryan worked with the TFFA, the firefighters’ union, to develop some new procedures. The issues with staffing have been largely solved, and that house is now fully staffed.
I’d like to again thank Chief Ryan for speaking to our Ward 2 neighbors and for leading our fire department.
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We will be holding a blood drive here at the Ward 2 office, 7575 East Speedway, on Wednesday, November 23rd.
Our goal this year is to collect 18 pints. We’ve met our goal in the past and we want to continue the streak!
The drive will be held in our large conference room from 8 am to 1 pm. To find out more or to schedule a donation, please call 1-800-733-2767. If you are scheduling a donation, please use the sponsor code WARD2.