The continuing saga of Donna and his magic fire truck. All previous articles are archived in the Donna category.
Are We A Fire Department Yet?
Frederick Cross (aka Donna Clark) and Charles Clark set about to assemble a “fire department” by purchasing some old trucks and painting their chosen name “Bridge Canyon Volunteer Fire Department” on them. After a fashion they put together a fleet comprising of a 1970 Chevrolet/Boardman pumper, a 1950 Chevrolet brush truck, a 1974 Chevrolet utility vehicle, and a 1964 tanker.
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The outdoor engine bay provides plenty of room for apparatus
They continued to hound around the fire forums begging for donations in the manner that we showed you with yesterday’s example. And in order to add credence to his “expertise” as a “fire chief with 17 yrs. experience” Frederick would offer up wise advice such as this posting on a forum thread comparing different types of sport drinks:
We carry both powdered Gatorade and Squenchers.We prefer Squenchers alot better simply because they are set up in individual packets and all thats needed is to add water….and the cup is the packet itself. Also we carry plain bottled water.
We get our Squenchers donated by the railroad here.We know the local “RailMaster” here so he has set us up since the railroad runs thru here.That is also where we get our bottled water from.They both come in cases.Just by luck,this town is a railroad town so ALOT of railroaders live here.
They also keep us stocked in Nutrition bars for on the trucks.
They stock up thier local workers first and then we get the overstock.
To the guy that mentioned something about “not wanting to deprive the firefighters of thier fluid intakes”…these individual packets are not meant for this purpose as we allow each firefighter to use as much as they need regardless of how many packets they may use.We only do this becuase we dont carry coolers on board the trucks due to the little amount of calls we get.We just keep water stocked in a freezer by cases and before we roll out we just grab a case or 2 to take with us…by the time we arrive on scene and with the heat in Arizona…the water thaws rather quickly but will stay cold throughout a call.
He never says whether they run to the freezer and grab those cases of frozen water before or after they put on their boots.
But soon his appeals for donations began failing to produce results:
Why is it soooo hard getting anything donated in this state???
Is it becuase the Companies of today just dont care anymore???
Or maybe…there is no such thing as “brotherhood” anymore??Donna C
Fire Chief
Bridge Canyon VFD
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To Run Calls, You Have To Be Dispatched
In Yavapai County there is a first-level 9-1-1 system for phoning in an emergency. When you call you are usually answered by the dispatch center in Prescott, 75 miles away. Occasionally it will ringover to the center in Phoenix, but the protocol is the same. The dispatcher then tones out the Seligman Fire Dept. via a low-band channel and gives a verbal dispatch. Seligman FD will then respond according to the state regulations that we discussed yesterday.
If the call is for a medical emergency, the dispatch will go to the private ambulance firm that services the area, LifeLine Ambulance in Prescott. Their nearest ambulance station to Seligman is in Williams, a 45 minute drive away. LifeLine will also call the SFD to respond for primary EMT care until the ambulance arrives.
Frederick tried to get the county to dispatch him on the fire calls outside the SFD fire protection district boundaries, but so far he has failed to convince them that he has a real fire department (maybe because he doesn’t…ed.). So what he resorted to was monitoring the dispatch frequency and also running the calls that SFD was sent to in the unprotected territory. Most of these are for wildfire calls for the Arizona Land Agency. This led to some confrontations on the fire scene and a lot of harrassment by Frederick and his 12 imaginary firefighters. And that led to his first arrest. We will talk about that another day.
As another way of seeking fame, action (and cash payments) he also tried to convince LifeLine to call him instead of SFD for medical assist calls in Bridge Canyon Estates:
Hello,
Please add our Department to your list of contacts in certain areas.
We are the private service provider of Bridge Canyon Estates. Please add Bridge Canyon Vol. Fire Department to your response records.
Our phone number is: 928-422-4333 and our initial field frequency is 154.145. We also can be reached on the statewide mutual aid channel (154.280)while we are on call as well as off-call as we monitor this channel.
We do not have EMT’s but we do offer first response(first aid) until an ambulance arrives onscene and our response personnell does have prior EMT related experience and training.
Seligman Fire District has been voted out of responding in the subdevelopment no matter what thier Chief specifies. If there is a medical call within the Bridge Canyon Estates legal boundaries then we will be your contact if we are called upon by the citizen to respond.
For more information, please visit our website at: http://bridgecanyonfire.XXXXXXXXX
Thank You,
Bridge Canyon Volunteer Fire Department
Hello,
Apparently you did not recieve our previous messages about adding us to your records when calling fire dept for medical call/mutal aid in and around Bridge Canyon Estates outside of Seligman. You are still dispatching Seligman FD into our area.
If Seligman FD continues responding in our area as per you calling them for mutual aid then we will promptly remove them from the scene and you will not recieve your emergency response payments from the residents in our area that you respond to. If you do not want to call us for mutual aid in medical calls then please do not call Seligman FD either.
This is according to what the residents in our response area want.
Again, our dispatching number is 928-422-4333 or you may contact us by cellphone.
We do not currently have EMT’s but we CAN monitor the patient or handle immediate first aid until the ambulance crew arrives.
Thank You for updating your records promptly,
Bridge Canyon Vol. Fire Dept,Inc
Bridge Canyon Estates
ACC Filing No: 13456550 FEIN No: 26-067299
POB 54 / 208 W Railroad Ave. Seligman AZ 86337-0054
928-422-4333 (Cell 1): 928-273-5988 (Cell 2): 928-273-8827
LifeLine didn’t buy into the program either. So Frederick is trying the direct approach. Recently, he has been posting signs around Black Canyon Estates advising people to phone him directly when they have an emergency and skip the 9-1-1 system altogether.
Note: On October 1, 2007, the Seligman FD entered into an official operating agreement with the Sheriff’s office (operator of the 9-1-1 dispatch center) that all 9-1-1 calls in the Seligman area will be transferred or dispatched to the SFD.
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Tomorrow we will talk about his claims of past experience and the membership of the BCVFD.
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