Fire station of fallen Arizona hotshots could be going up for sale
Feb 8, 2017, 12:34 PM
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX — Relatives of the firefighters who were killed in the Yarnell Hill blaze pleaded with Prescott officials not to sell the station where the men worked.
City council members met Tuesday in a special study session and discussed one of several properties the city might sell to make a dent in the nearly $80 million worth of liability related to the public safety pension program.
Family members of the disbanded Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighting team pitched ideas that could possibly keep Fire Station No. 7 in use.
A few personnel remain at the station, but they could be relocated, the Daily Courier quoted Don Hersh, the city’s real property specialist.
The elite unit was nearly wiped out in the June 2013 fire — 19 of the 20 firefighters died.
Deborah Pfingston, mother of Hotshot Andrew Ashcraft, said the station was “important to lot of people in the community.”
She asked the council that the families of the firefighters be given “time to maybe look outside of the box to see what we could use this property for.
“Maybe the city could make money continually and not just one sale.”
She suggested perhaps the site could become a training facility.
Amanda Marsh, widow of Hotshots superintendent Eric Marsh, presented a letter she wrote to Mayor Marlin Kuykendall and said, “I hope we can work together to make this transition something that the families can be part of.”
