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Giffords addresses emergency service difficulties
SIERRA VISTA - "The urban areas don't understand the challenge of delivering emergency services in Southern Arizona," said Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to the monthly assembly of first responders Wednesday morning.
Giffords addressed members of the Cochise County Emergency Medical Service Council and the Fire Chiefs Association, forging links between her committee assignments in Washington and the issues faced by her audience. The approximately 50 men and women - who had traveled from all corners of the county - sat at tables in a fire truck bay at the Fry Fire District station on Yaqui Street.
"The access for first responders to the West Gate on Fort Huachuca is important to you," she said. "And being on the House Armed Services committee helped us get with General (Barbara) Fast to have it reopened on a 24-hour basis."
Giffords credited Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever with helping educate her to the particular strains on first responders of illegal immigration - a subject that was sure to arise later in the day in Douglas at her summit meeting with municipal and law enforcement officials from the U.S. and Mexico.
In Sierra Vista, the mix of Border Patrol agents, firefighters, paramedics, air evacuation personnel and health workers listened as Giffords talked about her seat on the Science and Technology committee, and her awareness of the impact of climate shifts, less snowpack and rainfall on the water supply needed to fight fires, support the fastest growing state and its growing demand for an expanded infrastructure.
"People back east don't know our topography, our empty areas," she said. "I want to apply pressure to make sure you have the tools, resources and techniques to do your jobs."
She related her job on the Foreign Affairs committee (Western Hemisphere) to the summit in Douglas, saying that no doubt the recent drug gang violence in Cananea would come under discussion and that as a major clearinghouse for drugs, the Interstate 19 corridor leading to Tucson would be studied for permanent Border Patrol checkpoints.
She expressed the belief that Arizona's border counties interconnect and inter-relate in terms of their front line personnel, and that people in the room could be called upon to help each other and their counterparts in neighboring jurisdictions in the event of a shootout or disaster along or near the border.
Fry Fire Chief Bill Miller invited the group to comment or ask questions of Giffords, who listened to a variety of concerns, chiefly regarding the lack of insurance coverage for U.S. agencies and volunteers entering Mexico to assist with fires or other hazardous situations.
The distinction between "the smart thing to do" and "the right or moral thing to do," was raised by more than one fire official, who cited danger to life as well as property a regular dilemma faced by border responders. Major fires or chemical spills that could impact American citizens could be mitigated if assistance didn't carry with it such risk. "There's no liability," said Douglas Fire Chief Mario Novoa, who told Giffords he receives calls for help from across the border but is reluctant to offer more than technical assistance.
He expressed agreement with others who said there should be a kind of "free zone" for emergency workers and equipment that allowed some easy, prescribed-distance entry into Mexico.
"You can't even fly over in a helicopter," offered one first responder.
Earlier, Giffords learned that firefighters and volunteers had been told a special border card - at half the price of a passport - was in the works, and she didn't know where that idea stood.
She promised to look into it.
Mike Evans, Cochise County's emergency services director, updated Giffords and those in the fire station bay on the progress of the Collaborative Border Region Alliance - a project involving the Department of Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency. It would utilize federal funds to construct and purchase equipment that would connect all of Southern Arizona's emergency response and law enforcement organizations together with fully "interoperable" communications.
"There'd be more channels," said Evans, "and we could tie in to Pima and Yuma. It would get us all talking together, from one side of the state to the other."
Miller presented Giffords with a firefighter's ax, mounted on a plaque to commemorate her visit.
Sierra Vista Herald reporter Cindy Skalsky can be reached at 515-4611 or by e-mail at cindy.skalsky@svherald.com (Related) .
SIERRA VISTA - "The urban areas don't understand the challenge of delivering emergency services in Southern Arizona," said Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to the monthly assembly of first responders Wednesday morning.
Giffords addressed members of the Cochise County Emergency Medical Service Council and the Fire Chiefs Association, forging links between her committee assignments in Washington and the issues faced by her audience. The approximately 50 men and women - who had traveled from all corners of the county - sat at tables in a fire truck bay at the Fry Fire District station on Yaqui Street.
"The access for first responders to the West Gate on Fort Huachuca is important to you," she said. "And being on the House Armed Services committee helped us get with General (Barbara) Fast to have it reopened on a 24-hour basis."
Giffords credited Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever with helping educate her to the particular strains on first responders of illegal immigration - a subject that was sure to arise later in the day in Douglas at her summit meeting with municipal and law enforcement officials from the U.S. and Mexico.
In Sierra Vista, the mix of Border Patrol agents, firefighters, paramedics, air evacuation personnel and health workers listened as Giffords talked about her seat on the Science and Technology committee, and her awareness of the impact of climate shifts, less snowpack and rainfall on the water supply needed to fight fires, support the fastest growing state and its growing demand for an expanded infrastructure.
"People back east don't know our topography, our empty areas," she said. "I want to apply pressure to make sure you have the tools, resources and techniques to do your jobs."
She related her job on the Foreign Affairs committee (Western Hemisphere) to the summit in Douglas, saying that no doubt the recent drug gang violence in Cananea would come under discussion and that as a major clearinghouse for drugs, the Interstate 19 corridor leading to Tucson would be studied for permanent Border Patrol checkpoints.
She expressed the belief that Arizona's border counties interconnect and inter-relate in terms of their front line personnel, and that people in the room could be called upon to help each other and their counterparts in neighboring jurisdictions in the event of a shootout or disaster along or near the border.
Fry Fire Chief Bill Miller invited the group to comment or ask questions of Giffords, who listened to a variety of concerns, chiefly regarding the lack of insurance coverage for U.S. agencies and volunteers entering Mexico to assist with fires or other hazardous situations.
The distinction between "the smart thing to do" and "the right or moral thing to do," was raised by more than one fire official, who cited danger to life as well as property a regular dilemma faced by border responders. Major fires or chemical spills that could impact American citizens could be mitigated if assistance didn't carry with it such risk. "There's no liability," said Douglas Fire Chief Mario Novoa, who told Giffords he receives calls for help from across the border but is reluctant to offer more than technical assistance.
He expressed agreement with others who said there should be a kind of "free zone" for emergency workers and equipment that allowed some easy, prescribed-distance entry into Mexico.
"You can't even fly over in a helicopter," offered one first responder.
Earlier, Giffords learned that firefighters and volunteers had been told a special border card - at half the price of a passport - was in the works, and she didn't know where that idea stood.
She promised to look into it.
Mike Evans, Cochise County's emergency services director, updated Giffords and those in the fire station bay on the progress of the Collaborative Border Region Alliance - a project involving the Department of Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency. It would utilize federal funds to construct and purchase equipment that would connect all of Southern Arizona's emergency response and law enforcement organizations together with fully "interoperable" communications.
"There'd be more channels," said Evans, "and we could tie in to Pima and Yuma. It would get us all talking together, from one side of the state to the other."
Miller presented Giffords with a firefighter's ax, mounted on a plaque to commemorate her visit.
Sierra Vista Herald reporter Cindy Skalsky can be reached at 515-4611 or by e-mail at cindy.skalsky@svherald.com (Related) .
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