Glendale, Luke fire departments join forces

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class David Owsianka
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  The Glendale Fire Department joined Luke Air Force Base fire emergency services Dec. 5 and 6 in providing enhanced fire and life safety protection for Luke and far West Glendale.

Both departments began a pilot program in which the Glendale Fire Department will provide a fire truck and two paramedics on base at Fire Station 362 in order to provide advanced emergency medical services to the area.

"The primary mission is to provide advanced life support for medical responses on Luke and the five miles surrounding Luke," said Chief Master Sgt. Charles Funkhouser, 56th Civil Engineer Squadron fire chief. "Before they came here there was no advanced life support capability on base and we would have to wait about 10 minutes. Now if someone needs ALS they'll only have to wait three-to-five minutes.

According to Tony Rabonza, 56th CES deputy fire chief, being able to get there in the first four minutes allows us to not only have the chance to save someone's life, but save them from having any type of other issues associated with the loss of heart function for a period of time.

The Luke and Glendale fire departments came together for a couple of reasons.

"With 12 Luke firefighters deployed when the talks began and deployments coming up for other firefighters, we discussed how to get Glendale firefighters to work in the station while Airmen are deployed," Rabonza said.

"Being here at Luke also allows the Glendale firefighters to improve their response time in the far West Glendale area," he said.

Luke and Glendale have trained and drilled with each other before, but hasn't done anything like this until now.

"This is a great opportunity for us having a partnership with Luke," said Mark Manor, Glendale Fire Department fire captain. "We're looking forward to increasing the level of service in West Glendale."

According to Funkhouser, both sides will become better firefighters by joining forces.

"There are different techniques and ways to handle each response or call," he said. "Having civilian and military fire departments working together allows each side to exchange methods on how to respond."