Fire Corps
Service, Safety, & Support
The Mission of the Santa Rita Fire Corps is to provide Prevention and Safety Services to our Community that result in Superior Customer Satisfaction and Enhance the Effectiveness of the Santa Rita Fire District.
The SR Fire Corps started in 2006, as the Green Valley Fire Corps with a dozen local residents interested in volunteering to help the Fire District with day-to-day, non-emergent calls, such as desert pests and chirping smoke alarms. In addition, they offer to help with deliveries and errands, shuttling vehicles and supplies, clerical support, lockbox installations, and home safety checks.
Now that the Fire District has grown into the Town of Sahuarita, this has now grown to include five-day-per-week coverage for our Smoke Alarm Battery and Replacement Program, monitoring and replacing batteries in residential smoke alarms, as well as installing new A/C powered, battery back-up smoke alarms in local homes.
Fire Corps has over 75 volunteer members who work in the Field or Administration, and they have become an invaluable asset, both to the district and the community. In 2012, our Fire Corps was the recipient of the National Fire Corps Award of Excellence, for the best Fire Corps in the country. Recently, Santa Rita Fire Corps was awarded the Governor’s Volunteers Award for, ”Service to the Community”.
If you are searching for a way to make the greater Sahuarita / Green Valley community the perfect place to live, consider volunteering with Fire Corps. These volunteers make a difference.
EDUCATION
Santa Rita Fire District offers a wide array of public education opportunities, with the goal of keeping our citizens safe. Most of these services are available to the SRFD public free of charge.
Educational opportunities include:
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Fire and Life-Safety Presentations
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Station Tours
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Fire Extinguisher Classes
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School Presentations
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Child Car Seat Education and Installation
For questions regarding SRFD educational programs or to schedule a presentation, tour, or class, please contact our Community Services Division.
Smoke Alarms
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Battery Program
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According to the National Fire Protection Association, having a working smoke alarm reduces the chance of dying in a fire by more than half. This is why the Santa Rita Fire District encourages all homeowners to make sure they have properly working smoke alarms and that they are checked routinely.
In support of this effort, the Santa Rita Fire District is proud to offer two programs to help ensure all homeowners have properly working smoke alarms in their homes.
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First, is our Smoke Alarm Battery Program , which allows homeowners to have their smoke alarm batteries changed on a regular schedule for a small fee of $20 for a standard number of alarms (8 or fewer).
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The second program is our Smoke Alarm Replacement Program, which allows our residents to purchase hard wired with a battery backup smoke alarms directly from the Fire District for $25 each, installed by our Fire Corps volunteers. Both of these programs have proven to be extremely successful.
In 2023, the Santa Rita Fire District changed more than 8,000 smoke alarm batteries and installed over 2,650 smoke alarms in our local communities.
More Information from the NFPA.
Lockboxes
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
CERT trains and organizes teams of volunteers that provide assistance to their communities before, during, and after disasters.
CERT volunteers help others following disasters when professional responders are not immediately available to help, and supplement and support the efforts of professional responders upon their arrival.
Volunteers also support emergency response agencies by organizing and participating in local preparedness projects and initiatives. The CERT program educates participants about how to prepare for hazards that may impact their communities and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.
Residential lockboxes are designed to be a secure method of allowing district firefighters to access to your home via a key in your lock box when you are unable to open your own door, or in the event of a critical emergency at your residence when you are not at home.
Lockboxes are extremely strong and can only be opened by SRFD firefighters or Fire Corps volunteers. Your home keys are secured inside the box and accessed via a special key that is carried on fire department vehicles.
Your lockbox information is kept securely in our dispatch center computers, so dispatchers are able to alert responding crews that you have a key in the box.
If you would like to have a Residential Lockbox installed on your home.
SHiM
SHiM® (Safety and Health in Motion) is an evidence-based Fall Prevention Program that is a collaborative partnership between Valley Assistance Services and the Santa Rita Fire District.
Free home visits and assessments will promote your safety, provide you with information to help you prevent falls, encourage increased communication with your physician, and connect you to community resources.
SHiM® reaches out to senior residents in Green Valley and Sahuarita. RN Care Advocacy is available to help with other health concerns to keep individuals safe and independent at home.