Updated information November 2007

Rebuttal to recent allegations

In another recent attempt to discredit the Hualapai Valley Fire District, some individuals and publications within Mohave County have spread rumors and circulated information contrary to the official documents below.   The HVFD Board of Directors and Fire Chief will continue to insure that the citizens within and outside the fire district are informed with accurate and truthful information.   The following is a copy of a direct response an article in the "Standard" newspaper.

CLICK on the newspaper article to view full size version. 

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Dear Editor,
Recently, I read a letter to the editor by Dan Winder of the Kingman Fire Department in the Mohave County Standard, once again criticizing the Hualapai Valley Fire District.   This letter is filled with exactly the same misinformation previously published by Bobbie Borker, Ed Eads, and Tim Hill.   What strikes me is that, even after one year of the same old lies and misinformation, these individuals have the gall to regurgitate the same old political venom.

Personally, I grew up in a Fire Service family, and my late father was a retired Fire Chief.    He told me from a young age that politics had no place in the fire service, and I have to agree.

The real question is, how can anyone who works for our neighboring fire department to the south criticize our department when their own organization is plagued with their own issues?    What are you trying to accomplish?    What about the poor morale of your department and the lack of community buy-in on your bond issue?    The Rancho Santa Fe area remains unprotected by a neighborhood city fire station, placing those residents at risk due to extended response times from the closest fire station, and there are not even plans to build a station in this high value area. In addition, your ladder truck, valued at approximately $900,000, does not receive a full-time crew, and rarely responds to a structure fire on a first alarm assignment.    Why is a firefighter from KFD enrolled in the Hazardous Materials Technician training with health issues that prohibit him from participating in practical exercises that are a routine part of a fire fighter’s job?    Maybe these are issues you should address.    In May of this year, Hualapai Valley fire fighters participated in a live-fire training, with no injuries, no mishaps, no near-misses.    Kingman fire fighter Borker and union president Tim Hill, who were not there, reported to the Arizona Department of Occupational Safety and Health that fire fighters were seriously “burned”, that a fire fighter was sent into a burning building without a radio or activated “PASS alarm”, that an adjacent residence was burned, that a fire was ignited after fuel materials were doused with gasoline, and many other false and outrageous untruths.   HVFD will have its “day in court” at the end of January and will prevail despite pressure exerted on ADOSH by Mr. Hill, Mr. Borker and the fire fighters’ union.   Their agenda is to destroy; ours is to serve.     I could be, but have not been, publicly critical where Kingman firefighters have reportedly been injured or placed in jeopardy, such as in the KAR fire or the Hotel Beale fire or the recent fiery crash on i-40.   I wasn’t on scene, except for one and then only briefly. I wasn’t in charge.    I don’t know the whole story.   Fire service is inherently unpredictable and risky.   Dan, you are wrong about HVFD’s relations with KUSD, the State Fire Marshal and with KRMC and the Arizona Department of Health Services, the agency who makes “the rules”. You are wrong about all of it.     As always, HVFD is able to stand on the facts.   We are doing our best for our customers.   If you wish to view documents from the Arizona Department of Health Services which clear one of our Paramedics of any wrong doing during patient treatment, or the documents from the same organization which recently audited our Emergency Medical Services training program and gave us a clean bill of health, go to Fire District Issues at  www.hualapaivalleyfire.com    In addition, on the same web site under the same area, you will find a letter of appreciation from the staff and students from Kingman High School and a letter from the Arizona State Fire Marshal asking HVFD to enter into an agreement to perform school inspections again.    Maybe, you should check your facts before publishing a letter Dan.    I could go on, but I have a job to do, taxpayers to serve and lives and property to protect.   When I go to bed at night, I sleep well knowing that I have done my very best for the citizens and taxpayers of the district in which I live and work.
 

Wayne L. Eder
Fire Chief
Hualapai Valley Fire District

Supporting Documents
 

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HVFD Board Responds to Continued Allegations

Offers Original Documentation on Website

Over the past several months the Hualapai Valley Fire District (HVFD) has been repeatedly attacked, specifically Chief Wayne Eder.  The Board of Directors of the HVFD and Chief Eder have endeavored to take the “high road” regarding these false allegations and stay focused on the objective…the safety of our citizens and taxpayers.   Regardless of our previously published response to allegations (Kingman Daily Miner, Sunday, February 3, 2007), everything we do, or have done, has been distorted from the actual truth, and since this brought no hardd response from us, has now deteriorated into outright lies.   It has become increasingly clear that taking the “high road” has not resulted in an end to this “war” that has been declared on us primarily and blatantly by the Kingman Professional Firefighter’s Association (KPFFA).   We are doing a couple of things that should relieve the minds of any HVFD taxpayers who may be concerned with these fraudulent allegations, or anybody else that cares to examine the facts.   CLICK ON ARTICLE >

Beginning with this article, we will periodically be addressing these allegations, both #1) in print, and #2) on our website.

Most HVFD documents, with rare exceptions, such as individual personnel records, are considered public records; therefore, without your having to ask, we are going to post those records specific to the allegations lodged against us….a sort of “we report, you decide”.   Though personnel records are private records and not subject to public scrutiny, statistical analysis of them are not private, so we will be publishing statistics relating to personnel allegations where we are able to do so.    

We begin with the (four) most recent allegations, those leveled at us in the Sunday (June 3, 2007) Kingman Daily Miner, on the Opinion page.   Under each issue you will find two links: Allegations and Truth.  Under the Allegations link you will find the excerpt from the article.  Under the Truth link you will see first-hand, the letter, report, Board minutes, incident report, photographs, or whatever documentation substantiates the TRUTH. We have highlighted the applicable portion of each document, but of course you are free to read the entire document if you like.   We will continue this process in the newspaper until we have addressed all issues.  You are of course welcome to explore the www.hualapaivalleyfire.com website at anytime and learn more about our/your fire district; however, until all allegations from the last few months’ articles have been addressed, only the ones that have first been published by us in the newspaper will appear on the site, to avoid confusion.

Opinion: (excerpt from American Heritage Dictionary source)

- a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.

- a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.

- a judgment or estimate of a person or thing with respect to character, merit, etc.

- Something believed or accepted as true by a person: belief, conviction, feeling, idea, mind, notion, persuasion, position, sentiment, view.