Daisy Mountain Fire Department Adds ‘Medical’ to Name

More than 85 percent of all calls to Daisy Mountain Fire Department (DMFD) have nothing to do with fires. So, to better reflect its evolving responsibilities, the organization has changed its name to Daisy Mountain Fire & Medical (DMFM).

“We’re seeing a national trend where fire departments are visiting patients in their homes to deliver post-hospital services, including telemedicine,” said DMFM spokesperson Paul Schickel. The agency also expects to do more shuttling of patients from one hospital or medical facility to another. “We’re even evaluating a service to move non-emergency bed-ridden or wheelchair-bound people from one location to another.”

The name change was in the works for a year or two, Schickel told In&Out, and the launch was hastened when the project’s leader died in a hunting accident in Colorado.

“When Captain Wade Barter tragically died in October, it was decided to begin the rollout,” Schickel said. “Wade led the new identity project and it seemed appropriate to launch it early in his honor.”

DMFM has five fire stations serving roughly 200 square miles, encompassing Anthem, New River, Desert Hills and Black Canyon City. It also coordinates with fire departments in Phoenix and elsewhere to ensure the closest unit responds to any emergency and that districts back each other up whenever needed.

The rebranding will be gradual. Expect to see the old name and acronym kicking around for “a few years,” Schickel said. To save money, logos on uniforms and some equipment will be updated only when the items are replaced. The new logo appears on two recently opened new buildings—an administration building in Anthem, and a replacement for Fire Station 145 in Desert Hills.

“The estimated cost [of the rebranding] is a few hundred dollars per truck and a few thousand dollars overall,” Schickel said.

Robert Roy Britt

NoPho resident Robert Roy Britt has written for In&Out publications since its inception in 2005. Britt began his journalism career in New Jersey newspapers in the early 1990s. He later became a science writer and was editor-in-chief of the online media sites Space.com and Live Science. He has written four novels. .