Prescott fire leaders outline station, staffing and safety investments after Proposition 4 78 approval

Fire Department leaders told the Prescott City Council that a recently updated strategic plan, combined with voter-approved Proposition 4 78 funding, is driving near-term moves to add personnel, new apparatus and station upgrades to shorten response times and improve firefighter health and safety.

The update was presented by the department's command staff, with Deputy Chief Tom Knapp and Operations Division Chief Ralph Lucas describing changes to staffing, response data and capital priorities. "Our staffing is 83 full time employees and 15 volunteers," Deputy Chief Tom Knapp said. Lucas also summarized call volume, saying, "We ran a total of 10,889 emergency incidents."

The plan incorporates Prescott's new city mission and renames the department's top strategic result to "reducing community risk," officials said. After voters approved Proposition 4 78, the department said it is moving from identifying a funding shortfall to executing projects: hiring firefighters, ordering apparatus and pursuing station site work.

Fire leaders described several concrete near-term actions. The department has hired six firefighters who are in the academy and has promoted personnel to create daytime engine coverage. Officials said an additional engine company is planned and that the replacement engine ordered two years ago will be re-prioritized to support the new company. A ladder truck currently en route from out of state was identified as being in Phoenix and expected to arrive next month.

Officials are also making targeted health-and-safety upgrades at existing stations while longer-term station projects proceed through site validation and design. Fire staff said direct-exhaust capture systems and air curtains have been ordered for existing stations and are expected to arrive by June. The department described a station-design effort and a request for statement of qualifications (RSQ) to hire an architect for new stations.

On response-time goals and data, Lucas said Prescott now reports city-specific geography performance and uses more sophisticated analytics, including a Power BI dashboard and new standards developed through an accreditation process. The department adopted an 8-minute total response-time objective jointly with CAFMA; Lucas and other speakers said improving distribution and adding units are central to meeting that standard.

Fire officials highlighted technology and process improvements already in place: the department moved to new financial and transparency platforms (Tyler and OpenGov), structured program appraisals, and a digital records conversion that identified contract savings. Leaders also described a "live move-up" module (a deployment/positioning software) that the department said went into effect in February 2024 and has reduced intuitive move-up activity and related vehicle mileage.

Officials said the near-term capital schedule includes design work to reach a 30% design phase for station projects so the city can engage a construction manager at-risk, and that council would likely see a contract for modernized station alerting at an April council meeting. Department leaders said those alerting upgrades should cut total "hello to hello" response time by roughly 15–30 seconds by automating dispatch steps.

The department repeatedly emphasized that some site decisions remain preliminary. Fire staff said Station 76 is planned near Watson Lake on city-owned land and that Station 72 on Sixth Street will see a major remodel; site validity studies were still ongoing.

Council members and staff asked about implementation timing and technical details; fire leaders distinguished completed purchases (exhaust capture systems ordered) from items still in study (final station sites). The presentation closed with fire officials thanking voters and staff and noting further design and hiring work over the coming months.