Help Martinez Lake Fire District Grow!

Martinez Lake Fire District was established in 2020 after cancelation of Rual Metro services.

Financially, we can operate with-in budget, but there is not enough left over to acquire the apparatus, PPE or station upgrade / maintenance we are needing. As our community continues to grow, we need to be able to evolve with it.

As a team, we recognize our “True North”. We also understand there will be a need to provide both physical work and financial support to achieve our goals.

Goals:

1. Obtain response apparatus that is more modern and suitable for the commercial and residential growth of our district.

2. Remodel the current building to allow future growth and better functioning for the fire service.

3. Equipment and PPE for staff to implement a wildland support team that can deploy an engine and tender as needed for wildland fire suppression.

4. Equipment and PPE for the staff to evolve from Basic Life Support responders to an Advance Life Support responders.

The main response area in Martinez Lake consists of:

1. Martinez Lake's North Shore

2. Martinez Lake

3. Pruitt City

4. Fishers Landing

5. Swedes Hill

6. Dry Camp

7. Red Cloud Mine

8. Imperial Wildlife Refuge

Commercial businesses include:

Martinez Lake Resort and Cantina

Rio Loco Restaurant and Bar

MDS ATV Repair

Fishers Landing Resort Boat Shop

Martinez Lake Boart Shop

Fishers Landing General Store

Martinez Lake Store

USMC Venture Lodging at Martinez Lake

Post office

Fishers Landing Boat Launch w/ fueling stations

Martinez Lake Boat Launch w/ fueling stations

Lower Colorado River Adventures and ATV tours

Colorado King Paddleboat Tours

Red Cloud Mine

In addition to commercial businesses, the Martinez Lake Fire Department serves approximately 500 private resident structures, 365 square miles of desert, and 640 acres of man-made freshwater lake.

The population of Martinez Lake is 32,500. Area census is a combination of 500 full time residents and 32,000 seasonal homeowners and winter visitors dry camping 6 months a year. During the holiday seasons, the population can increase to 46,000.

Mining activity at the Red Cloud Mine in LaPaz county supports staffing of 25 full time employees and 35,000 recreational / seasonal visitors per year.

Martinez Lake Fire District is also the closest emergency response team for EMS and Fire to Imperial Wildlife Refuge.

River recreational activities and seasonal visitors are the main source of income for this area.

Area resident demographics are older than average with a high percentage of retired people living on fixed incomes.

Operations consist of a staff of 1 full-time fire chief, 5 full-time firefighters, 2 part-time fire fighters and 4 volunteers.

Our Hours of operations are 24 / 7 with 3–48-hour shift rotations per week.

Our call volume has slowly increased over the last 6 months from a calculated 12 to 15 calls a year to 10 to 15 calls a month. (83% increase in call volume, I believe…)

We believe the projects will benefit both our community, our fire district and our county. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need further information.

Thank you for your consideration,

Fire Chief Jodi Little

Fire Captain Alexis Velasco

Fire Captain John Portz

Fire Captain Omar Flores

Firefighter Will Koppelman

Firefighter Felipe Ramire

Firefighter Steve Juarez

Firefighter Richie Rubi

Volunteer Randy Tobler

Volunteer Ian Wigglesworth

Volunteer Walt Kautz

Volunteer Brian Lobel