The Pine-Strawberry Fire Department needs a little help from its friends.
And that’s what it’s getting – at least an itty bitty bit of help.
The fire department will get a $37,000 grant from the Gila River Indian Community to buy three defibrillators – which can restart a stopped heart in an emergency.
The department will also get $32,000 from Gila County to buy 13 new radios, to improve communications on an emergency call – and connect Pine crews with other first responders.
Rural fire districts like Pine have been struggling, with a rising tide of emergency calls for things like accidents on the highway and rescues in hard-to-reach Fossil Creek. The fire district covers an unincorporated area and so relies almost entirely on property taxes – with neither a sales tax nor high-value commercial and industrial property to generate revenue.