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By Pete Rios
District 1 Supervisor
Once a person asked me what was one of the best parts about living in Pinal County. I immediately responded: “No matter where you go, there is always a sense of community.”
No one need look further for the sense of community than the Town of Kearny.
Last week we saw a response to the Kearny River Fire that brought in volunteers from all walks of life. From the guy who works the day shift at Asarco to persons being held by the Arizona Department of Corrections. All had the same goals – save lives, save Kearny and put out the fire.
I am sending my sincere appreciation to all of those departments who responded to help contain and control this blaze.
• Kearny Fire Department
• Superior Fire Department
• Oracle Fire Department
• Eloy Fire District
• Superstition Fire & Medical District
• Tri-City Fire District
• Winkelman Fire Department
• Globe Fire Department
• Queen Valley Fire District
• Regional Fire and Rescue
• Copper Basin Railroad
One group I would like to specifically point out is the Arizona Department of Corrections Female Wildland Fire Crew. These folks are trained to handle these types of emergencies and they worked as hard as the crews on hand. The best part though, is that they were treated as firefighters by their peers and not as prisoners. It would be nice to see some of these people on fire crews once they have served their sentence.
This was a tremendous undertaking considering the salt cedar trees that burned hot and created a lot of smoke. I am also sending my thanks to Check Kmet and county employees who manned the Pinal County Emergency Management office. We had a lot of employees from the Sheriff’s Department to our Animal Care and Control Department involved in assisting the firefighting efforts in the Town of Kearny and the surrounding area.
Again, my sincere appreciation to all who helped in this time of need for the people of Kearny.
There are news or informational items frequently written by staff or submitted to the Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner, Superior Sun, Pinal Nugget or Oracle Towne Crier for inclusion in our print or digital products. These items are not credited with an author.
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