The City of Casa Grande Fire Department proudly protects over 63,743 people living in an area of over 112 square miles. The Fire Department operates out of four fire stations that protect a primarily residential area. The department is a public department whose members are on a paid status. The Casa Grande Fire Department is one of the oldest in Pinal County, Arizona, dating back to the City’s incorporation in 1915. The department celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 2016.
Services provided:
Fire Suppression
Emergency Medical Services
Hazardous Materials Response
Search and Rescue
Extrication
Technical Rescue Confined Space
Wildfire
Fire Prevention
Fire Department Mission Statement
Provide quality customer service, professional fire protection, and life safety to meet the needs of the community.
Fire Department Vision
The Casa Grande Fire Department will be on the leading edge of fire service trends, as they expand to meet the dynamic needs of the growing community.
Overall CGFD is a good department with some great personnel on the line. The issues stem from the very top and end just about there. A common theme in this review is going to be the lack of leadership at the highest level and the issues it causes down the line.
Leadership-
This is and will remain the largest issue with this department as long as the current chief remains. There is little to no real leadership at the highest level and when he does show up its worse then if he had never had any input. The chiefs priorities are to make himself look good and that is all. He has no forward vision for the department and the tremendous growth this city is dealing with. No talks of adding stations or resources to cover the areas growing at a very rapid rate and help relieve the staff that is already being ran constantly. The reason this section gets 2/5 stars at all is due to the staff below him. From the assistant chief level down the staff is great. They do the best they can at making up for the slack of their boss and cleaning up his messes. This causes them to get some negative responses from members at times, but I feel it can be unjustly put on them as again it usually stems from the top. The battalion chiefs at this department are awesome and do everything they can to make line personnel’s lives much easier in the day to day operations.
Work Enviroment-
This receives a 3/5 purely based on the line personnel in this department. For the BS they are handed everyday they maintain a relatively high morale. Members truly want to do best for the city and the department and are some of the best people you could ask to work with. Most the stations are in a state of disrepair beyond what most would consider livable. Mold, rats, bay doors that don’t work, tones that don’t work, and any number of others problems. The opening of the newest station is even laughable as it was designed by the chief as a drunken idea and line members were scolded for trying to give their input on what would be best for them in the long term. This city is growing at an exuberant rate and is already behind the game in terms of stations with no push by leadership for the city to support the addition of new stations. Lastly with the addition of ambulance companies recently you think there may have been a plan in place for the implementation of this but shocker there was not. This has led to countless issues that yet again the line staff is left to figure out on their own. The inability of leadership to have a discussion with staff about what the future vision may look like has caused a lot more strain then is needed on members. From being unwilling to change outdated policies that place unnecessary sleepless hours on the members and extra miles on apparatus to talking about the addition of resources to help members that are run thin none of this occurs making the work environment a 3/5 most days. Lastly in terms of work environment, the differences between older members and younger has led to rifts in the way we operate in many capacities. While everyone gets along very well it seems like there is a major split when it comes to the way the job is done. Even down to the hose loads members can’t agree on what we do. Part of this is due to older members being unwilling to learn new practices and train on them regularly and partly due to newer members pushing things on others even when the majority are not in favor. A lot of this comes from no standard of training within the department but to this I will say there has been a fix implemented and training is getting better but that is being led by line staff and again no word of fixes from the top.
Resources & Equipment-
This receives a 2/5 due to the horrific mechanic staff this city employs. Trucks are constantly broken and often without reserves to change into. Ladder companies have responded in brush trucks, trucks wont go into pump on structure fires, maintenance on the trucks is thousands of miles past due. Most of this stems from a terribly run service department from the city that refuses to add additional staff to help maintain an ever growing fleet of fire apparatus. The staff they do employee that is certified to work on fire apparatus has one foot out the door and constantly tries to place blame on the members of the department for the issues with the apparatus. Even when new apparatus is acquired specs are changed from what was agreed on by line personnel only causing more issues down the line. Equipment in this department need a major refresh to be up to spec with the call volume they are running day in and day out.
Staffing-
Like many others this department is short staffed leading to members picking up the slack by working hundreds of overtime hours. With no real push by leadership to continually hire new members to help correct this problem. The chief inserts himself in the hiring process just enough to bypass what the members wishes are for new hires and do the opposite of those wishes. The 48/96 is a decent schedule as it allows members more time off shift to spend with family and away from the job which can be a boost to morale.
ETC-
I’ll say it again that most of the issues in this department stem from bad leadership at the very top. When he’s not busy making us look unprofessional on social media he’s not doing anything productive for the department either. A change in leadership would be the best thing for this department. Second to that from a member side issue it feels as if the union is too scared and weak to stand up to him. Even when threats are made they are empty and nothing is done with the boatloads of evidence we have against the chief to get him removed. Members issues are brought up and laughed at as they clearly aren’t as important as obtaining a union hall is currently for the bro club we call a union. There main focus is helping elect city officials who turn around and do nothing for us once they are in positions of power.
Again overall CGFD is not a bad place to work. The calls vary drastically day to day making it an exciting place to work. With this growth this city is experiencing this department has the potential to grow into a very solid department. The thing that will hold it back is the current leadership in this department and no plan to get them removed. With a solid plan for the future this department could be great its to bad we don’t have one.
Rating Breakdown
2/5
3/5
2/5
3/5
1 Reviews on “Casa Grande Fire Department”
Overall CGFD is a good department with some great personnel on the line. The issues stem from the very top and end just about there. A common theme in this review is going to be the lack of leadership at the highest level and the issues it causes down the line.
Leadership-
This is and will remain the largest issue with this department as long as the current chief remains. There is little to no real leadership at the highest level and when he does show up its worse then if he had never had any input. The chiefs priorities are to make himself look good and that is all. He has no forward vision for the department and the tremendous growth this city is dealing with. No talks of adding stations or resources to cover the areas growing at a very rapid rate and help relieve the staff that is already being ran constantly. The reason this section gets 2/5 stars at all is due to the staff below him. From the assistant chief level down the staff is great. They do the best they can at making up for the slack of their boss and cleaning up his messes. This causes them to get some negative responses from members at times, but I feel it can be unjustly put on them as again it usually stems from the top. The battalion chiefs at this department are awesome and do everything they can to make line personnel’s lives much easier in the day to day operations.
Work Enviroment-
This receives a 3/5 purely based on the line personnel in this department. For the BS they are handed everyday they maintain a relatively high morale. Members truly want to do best for the city and the department and are some of the best people you could ask to work with. Most the stations are in a state of disrepair beyond what most would consider livable. Mold, rats, bay doors that don’t work, tones that don’t work, and any number of others problems. The opening of the newest station is even laughable as it was designed by the chief as a drunken idea and line members were scolded for trying to give their input on what would be best for them in the long term. This city is growing at an exuberant rate and is already behind the game in terms of stations with no push by leadership for the city to support the addition of new stations. Lastly with the addition of ambulance companies recently you think there may have been a plan in place for the implementation of this but shocker there was not. This has led to countless issues that yet again the line staff is left to figure out on their own. The inability of leadership to have a discussion with staff about what the future vision may look like has caused a lot more strain then is needed on members. From being unwilling to change outdated policies that place unnecessary sleepless hours on the members and extra miles on apparatus to talking about the addition of resources to help members that are run thin none of this occurs making the work environment a 3/5 most days. Lastly in terms of work environment, the differences between older members and younger has led to rifts in the way we operate in many capacities. While everyone gets along very well it seems like there is a major split when it comes to the way the job is done. Even down to the hose loads members can’t agree on what we do. Part of this is due to older members being unwilling to learn new practices and train on them regularly and partly due to newer members pushing things on others even when the majority are not in favor. A lot of this comes from no standard of training within the department but to this I will say there has been a fix implemented and training is getting better but that is being led by line staff and again no word of fixes from the top.
Resources & Equipment-
This receives a 2/5 due to the horrific mechanic staff this city employs. Trucks are constantly broken and often without reserves to change into. Ladder companies have responded in brush trucks, trucks wont go into pump on structure fires, maintenance on the trucks is thousands of miles past due. Most of this stems from a terribly run service department from the city that refuses to add additional staff to help maintain an ever growing fleet of fire apparatus. The staff they do employee that is certified to work on fire apparatus has one foot out the door and constantly tries to place blame on the members of the department for the issues with the apparatus. Even when new apparatus is acquired specs are changed from what was agreed on by line personnel only causing more issues down the line. Equipment in this department need a major refresh to be up to spec with the call volume they are running day in and day out.
Staffing-
Like many others this department is short staffed leading to members picking up the slack by working hundreds of overtime hours. With no real push by leadership to continually hire new members to help correct this problem. The chief inserts himself in the hiring process just enough to bypass what the members wishes are for new hires and do the opposite of those wishes. The 48/96 is a decent schedule as it allows members more time off shift to spend with family and away from the job which can be a boost to morale.
ETC-
I’ll say it again that most of the issues in this department stem from bad leadership at the very top. When he’s not busy making us look unprofessional on social media he’s not doing anything productive for the department either. A change in leadership would be the best thing for this department. Second to that from a member side issue it feels as if the union is too scared and weak to stand up to him. Even when threats are made they are empty and nothing is done with the boatloads of evidence we have against the chief to get him removed. Members issues are brought up and laughed at as they clearly aren’t as important as obtaining a union hall is currently for the bro club we call a union. There main focus is helping elect city officials who turn around and do nothing for us once they are in positions of power.
Again overall CGFD is not a bad place to work. The calls vary drastically day to day making it an exciting place to work. With this growth this city is experiencing this department has the potential to grow into a very solid department. The thing that will hold it back is the current leadership in this department and no plan to get them removed. With a solid plan for the future this department could be great its to bad we don’t have one.