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Fire and EMS report: burn piles, fuel mitigation and ambulance delivery among updates
Summary
Ivins public safety leaders told council about active fuel-mitigation burn piles across city washes and neighborhoods, progress on an ordered ambulance arriving ahead of schedule, staffing and upcoming risk-assessment work for wildfire and community risk priorities.
Ivins public safety officials provided updates at the March 6 council meeting on wildfire fuel-mitigation, staffing, equipment acquisition and an upcoming community risk assessment.
The fire chief (name not specified) said crews and partners had completed numerous burn piles in recent months as part of fuel-mitigation efforts: roughly 25–30 burn piles in the Kayenta area and about 20 burn piles in the Tuocon Wash. The chief said crews placed piles five to ten feet high and in some locations assembled larger piles for removal; the City has coordinated with a flood-control authority ACE crew (a college-student crew funded through federal programs) and other contractors for clearing invasive growth and creating piles for later burning. "We're right around 25 to 30 burn piles in the Kayenta area over the last few months," the chief said.
The chief also reported on equipment and staffing: an ambulance ordered about a year earlier originally expected in January 2026 was moved ahead by the supplier and may arrive as early as October or November 2025; the department completed pre-build planning for that vehicle. The department is finishing routine annual testing (SCBA, ladder and hose testing, hydrant testing) and expects to run recruitment and tests for open positions (engineer, firefighter, captain) in the coming weeks.
Officials said the city awarded a contract for a community risk-assessment and standards-of-coverage study (the vendor named in the meeting was presented as the selected firm) with work slated to begin promptly and be completed in June. The chief described the resulting assessment as a "live document" that will be refined over time and said staff had identified prioritized areas of concern and proposed levels of mitigation; staff will coordinate findings and public messaging closely with the council before any materials are posted publicly.
Council members asked for a joint public-safety session with neighboring Santa Clara to discuss regional wildfire and emergency response needs; staff said they had talked with Santa Clara's mayor and that a regional meeting is under consideration when local officials complete a few preliminary items.
No formal vote was required on the operational updates; council asked staff to return with the completed risk-assessment and to coordinate on the inter-city public-safety meeting.
