Fire department name change becomes official

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How the logos are changing for the Maricopa Fire Department, which is now operating as City of Maricopa Fire/Medical.

 

By Mason Callejas

The Maricopa Fire Department successfully lobbied the City Council to change its name, citing public confusion as the reason behind the alteration.

The official name of the department has been changed from “Maricopa Fire Department” to “City of Maricopa Fire and Medical.”  Fire Chief Brady Leffler spoke to the council during a work session Sept. 20 and indicated the department often suffered from “mistaken Identity” due to misplaced association of their previous name.

The addition of the geographic identifier “City” to the name is aimed at distinguishing the City of Maricopa, which resides in Pinal County, from the county of Maricopa. Leffler said he hopes the distinction will help people recognize the difference between localities, but will also help dissolve the city’s misperceived connection with controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“We are commonly referred to as the Maricopa County Fire Department… and we are associated with Sheriff Joe on a routine basis,” Leffler said. “We have worked very hard to try and reverse that.”

Arpaio has been drawn into the national spotlight in recent years due to what some consider racially discriminatory policies to determine an individual’s immigration status.

Leffler also wanted to add the identifier “Medical” to the name to provide a better sense of what services the department provides.

“We are adding the word medical,” he said, “because that is approximately 75 percent of what we do.”

The council voted unanimously to approve the change that will be implemented over the next three years. Though new equipment will immediately reflect the new names, existing uniforms and vehicle logos will be slowly phased out so the cost will be better absorbed by the department’s budget.

MFD-New-Truck