Crews thin firing dangers in Scottsdale | City news

Attentive drivers with the most important arteries and side streets from North Scottsdale, attentive, note the signs “Caution: Fire Brigade forward”.

That is street short. A more detailed (albeit distracting) sign would be: “Caution: Wildland fire reduction that does not extinguish local growth in order to reduce the fire potential of the crown fire.”

As Scottsdale's fire chief Tom Shannon noticed, the best way is to fight a fire before it begins.

While Shannon's administration works with home owners' associations and individuals to make their communities “Firewise” by clearing brushes and other fire burners out of their property, a large part of the forest fires and drunk sailors are on the property in the city.

Against this background, instead of running around with fire hoses, the crews armed with chainsaws and branch trimmers work on the streets of Scottsdale.

Meet the Birrueta Wildland Crew, a team of 10 socks, cliffs, tailors, chipper and blower.

In North Scottsdale, they freaked out behind enemy lines like a tactical scout-and-assault team.

“They are very efficient when they move,” said Dave Ramirez and wore a knowing grin.

When Ramirez retired as head of the Tonto National Forest Fire, Shannon quickly grabbed to become the forest fire damage reduction coordinator at Scottsdale Fire.

“He brought me to work,” said Ramirez.

“With all these big fires we have, knew (Shannon) that not only was the preservation – but that our communities were.”

According to a recent presentation by Shannon, Scottsdale achieved a five -year high for brush fires in 2024 and almost doubled the total number of the previous year.

As Mayor Lisa Borowsky in her presentation “State of the City” from February 26 “in La reminds us, reminds us that we have a great exposure in North Scotttsdale here in Scottsdale.”

In 2024, Shannons Crews reacted to 72 brush fires – by far most in the past six years.

Few people know forest fires and Ramirez.

As the US Forest Service noted when he had awarded a “hometown Heroes” in 2020, “Dave Ramirez has been department head for the Tonto National Forest … Dave visited the University of Montana, where he received degrees in finance and business administration. He also completed the technical fire management (program) through Colorado State University in 2003. “

Ramirez began fighting and mitating in 1987 at Lolo National Forest in Missoula, Montana.

If the work of the brand is behind the scenes, Ramirez went a deeper level because rocket science may not be rocket science, but it is not cheap.

“I started to achieve grants,” he said, “and we have probably come almost $ 2 million for grants.”

Ramirez stood on the south side of the Westland Avenue – on the Scottsdale Road – where his crew had just cut and cleared the city's ownership from the street and pointed to the other side.

What many call “brush” – he calls “fuel”.

“You see the situation there,” he said, “where you put some dead fuels over fences. And you can see all the dead limbs on the trees and you have this thick undergrowth. “

Too much fuel, he said with a grimace.

“If you have a fire that runs through there, it goes through the brush – and then it climbs into the crowns of the trees. And if it does, he not only kills the tree, but also throws embers everywhere.

“And if you have a wind, even with such a street, the fire would not stop it.”

Forest fires that spread to amazing speeds become an annual matter in North Scottsdale.

The diamond and the gate, which were less than 1 mile apart, have burned thousands of hectares of Wildland in North Scottsdale in the past two years.

Hours after the gate fire enforced the evacuations in the northeast of Scottsdale last September, the investigators found that “the fire was caused by working on a residential building location.”

Such a responsible party was identified by a state investigator of the Diamond Fire from 2023, which also began in Storyrock, less than 1 mile from the goal.

As Shannon said six weeks ago, Shannon said when the fires in Los Angeles were still smoldering: “Our goal is to reduce the potential for the (fire) start.”

Enter Ramirez and Company.

The Wildland Manager refers to an attractive tree – its name means “green stick” or “green stick” in Spanish – and devour like a stumatic snacker on a bag of chips.

“Palo Verde – they are, they are everywhere, right?” Said Ramirez. “And you cannot handle fire; You have a very thin bark. You have never developed with fire.

“This is one of the few ecosystems that we have in the country that doesn't fire.”

Before the city started developing more at home, “there were never big fires in the Sonora desert,” said Ramirez.

“It is all this invasive grass and weeds. That's why we only have huge, catastrophic fire. “

Add more development every year, more people, more fuel – right next to the long -term untouched country in the canned goods …

Dave Ramirez can use all types of ecology/fire brigade to describe the human interface of North Scottsdale.

Or he can put it in words, even a child can understand:

“We have a damn problem.”