🚨 Fire Chief McDonough Reveals 105K Emergency Calls While Congress Plots to Sell Your Hiking Trails, Sabino & Madera Canyons | BUCKMASTER
Military generals and fire chiefs unite in defending what belongs to the people
Based on the Buckmaster Show for 6/23/25, a daily radio show in Tucson, AZ, interviewing local newsmakers. Analysis and opinions are my own.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
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Tucson's new fire chief, the first woman to hold the job 🚒👩🚒, explained how firefighters are overwhelmed because emergency calls have skyrocketed from 79,000 to over 105,000 per year 📈🚨, but they actually have fewer firefighters now than before 👨🚒➖.
Meanwhile, a retired general discussed recent military strikes against Iran 💣🇮🇷 and warned that Congress might sell millions of acres of public lands like national forests where families hike and camp 🌲🚶♂️⛺.
Both leaders showed how underfunding public services creates bigger problems later, whether it's delayed emergency response times ⏰🆘 or having to use military force 💥 because diplomatic solutions weren't properly funded 🤝💵.
🗝️ Takeaways
🔥 Tucson Fire Department handled 105,000+ calls in 2024, with fewer firefighters than in 200,8 when they had only 79,000 calls
🏥 Emergency calls spike due to drug crisis, homelessness, aging population, and healthcare system failures
💣 General Buchanan clarifies weekend Iran strikes as "military operations," not war while warning of potential domestic terrorism
🏔️ Congress is considering selling 2-3 million acres of public lands, potentially including places like Sabino Canyon and Madera Canyon
🐝 One-third of food depends on pollinators threatened by habitat loss and pesticides
📈 Fire chief advocates for full-time mental health clinician due to trauma affecting first responders
🎯 Iran is described as "the world's largest sponsor of terrorism" with weakened proxy networks after recent conflicts
Fire, Fights, and the Future: When Leadership Meets the Limits of Late-Stage Capitalism
Bill Buckmaster's Monday marathon on June 23rd served up a smorgasbord of sobering realities that should make every Tucsonan's blood pressure spike faster than summer temperatures on asphalt.
With Fire Chief Sharon McDonough blazing trails through bureaucratic barriers and retired General Jeffrey Buchanan breaking down military maneuvers in the Middle East, listeners got a masterclass in how competent leaders navigate systems designed more for profit extraction than public protection.
Because nothing says "American exceptionalism" quite like having your fire department run on fumes while Congress debates selling off your hiking trails to the highest bidder.
The Fire Chief's Fiery Truth-Telling: When Heroes Need Heroes
Sharon McDonough didn't ascend to become Tucson's first female fire chief by sugar-coating uncomfortable truths. After 34 years climbing the ranks in a profession where women represent less than 5% of fire chiefs nationwide, McDonough brings both historical significance and hard-won expertise to a department overwhelmed by emergency calls.
The arithmetic is absolutely apocalyptic: "105,000 plus calls" in 2024, with "this year we are trending to even beat that number."
Compare that catastrophic caseload to the 2008 figure of 79,000 calls, when the department had 673 authorized positions. Today? They're authorized for 645 firefighters but only have 641—meaning more emergencies, fewer responders, and response times that stretch longer than a Koch Brothers' environmental impact study.
Ah yes, the classic neoliberal math: demand exponential growth while slashing resources. It's like asking someone to put out more fires with less water and then acting surprised when everything burns down.
McDonough's breakdown of call volume drivers reads like a progressive policy primer on systemic failures:
"I think there is a major drug issue in our city that impacts our system"
"The homeless population relies on us as primary care for some of their unmet needs"
"We have an aging population who is also in need of our services"
"The insurance system, as people try to work through their primary cares and whatnot has become increasingly complex"
Translation: When you defund mental health services, affordable housing, healthcare access, and addiction treatment, guess who becomes the catch-all for society's deliberately ignored problems? Your local fire department, staffed by people making middle-class wages while dealing with upper-class emergencies caused by poverty-class policies.
The chief's most haunting revelation came when discussing trauma's invisible toll: "I have an intersection that I have avoided for almost 15 years" due to memories of an 11-year-old girl's death. She continued, "We all have those scenes in our head, and many of them involve children because those are the ones that are really tough for us."
Because apparently, we expect our first responders to be superhuman while providing them with subhuman support systems.
McDonough's push for a full-time mental health clinician isn't progressive luxury—it's a practical necessity for a department hemorrhaging human capital to stress, cancer rates that exceed any other profession, and burnout that's becoming endemic.
When your heroes need heroes, maybe it's time to examine the system that's breaking them.
General Buchanan's Military Mathematics: Bombs, Budgets, and Public Lands
Retired three-star General Jeffrey Buchanan brought analytical precision to weekend military strikes against Iran, offering context that cuts through both warmongering hysteria and peacenik denial.
His historical perspective on U.S.-Iran relations—how we transformed from close allies in the 1960s and 1970s to adversaries after the 1979 revolution—provides crucial background often missing from breathless cable news coverage.
"It's not because of what we did. It was because of who we are," Buchanan explained about Iran's "Death to America" chants, noting how the clerical regime viewed American culture as providing "temptation of blue jeans and rock and roll music and perfume and everything else."
Nothing threatens authoritarian theocracy quite like allowing people to choose their own pants and playlist.
The general's assessment that we're conducting "military operations" rather than being "at war" carries constitutional weight, referencing Reagan's 1986 Libya strikes as precedent. But his concerns about potential domestic terrorism weren't fear-mongering—they reflected realistic risk assessment from someone who spent four tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan watching Iran's proxy network operate.
What truly distinguished Buchanan was his passionate defense of public lands while sporting a "Public Land Owner" T-shirt. With Congress considering legislation requiring "the federal government to sell two to three million acres of land, dominantly forest service and bureau land management land, almost all in the Western United States," with options to sell "up to 132 million acres," the general's environmental activism transcends traditional political boundaries.
Because nothing says "America First" quite like selling America's natural heritage to private developers who'll charge admission to hike where your grandparents once walked freely.
Places like Madera Canyon, Sabino Canyon, and vast swaths of Coronado National Forest could disappear into private hands faster than you can say "shareholder value."
"This is all of ours. I know that... It's for all of us. We all own it. And it's not up for sale as far as I'm concerned," Buchanan declared.
The Mathematics of Municipal Misery
Let's crunch some numbers that should make every taxpayer's calculator weep:
2008 vs. 2024 Tucson Fire Department:
2008: 79,000 calls with 673 authorized positions
2024: 105,000+ calls with 641 actual firefighters
Mathematical reality: 33% more emergencies with 5% fewer responders
This arithmetic apocalypse means each firefighter handles exponentially more calls while having less time for training, meals, rest, or basic human needs. McDonough noted that firefighters lack time to "drill to practice to relax to work out to eat a meal and be their best selves."
It's almost like designing public services to fail provides a convenient justification for privatizing them later. Surely that's just coincidental.
The department's staffing carousel continues spinning: "This month, we will be losing 17 people. And next month we're graduating an academy of 33." So instead of gaining 33 new firefighters, they're netting 16—if they're lucky and don't lose more to burnout, injury, or better opportunities elsewhere.
Environmental Warfare: When Public Becomes Private
Buchanan's public lands advocacy reveals how environmental destruction operates through legislative sleight-of-hand. The Senate's draft budget doesn't just threaten abstract wilderness—it targets specific places where Indigenous peoples have maintained cultural connections for millennia, where working families escape urban stress, where future generations might experience natural wonder without corporate intermediaries.
Apparently, the only thing conservatives want to conserve is their right to commodify everything that isn't nailed down—and they're working on the nails.
Organizations such as Back Country Hunters and Anglers, the Arizona Sportsman's Foundation, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership are mobilizing against this privatization push. But individual action matters: contacting representatives, supporting environmental groups, and recognizing that public land ownership represents genuine collective wealth in an era of accelerating inequality.
The Pollinator Politics of Survival
The general's discussion of National Pollinator Month highlighted another crisis hiding in plain sight: "one out of every three bites of food they take is only possible because of pollination" by hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and bats.
With habitat reduction and pesticide proliferation threatening these tiny titans, food security intersects with environmental justice in ways most people never consider.
Because nothing says "pro-life" quite like poisoning the creatures that make life possible.
Progressive Prescriptions for Systemic Sickness
These aren't isolated problems requiring individual solutions—they're symptoms of systems prioritizing profit over people, efficiency over equity, and short-term gains over long-term sustainability. Here's what progressive analysis reveals:
Fire Department Crisis = Healthcare Crisis: When people can't access primary care, emergency services become expensive band-aids on deeper wounds. Medicare for All would reduce the number of fire department calls while improving health outcomes.
Military Operations = Proxy Wars: Iran's "proxy network" mirrors America's own global military presence. Addressing the root causes of conflict requires examining how the US’s economic policies contribute to the conditions that foster extremism worldwide.
Public Land Sales = Wealth Concentration: Privatizing collective assets represents an upward transfer of wealth disguised as fiscal responsibility. These lands belong to Indigenous peoples first, all Americans second, and private developers never.
What You Can Do: From Outrage to Organization
Individual action within collective frameworks creates sustainable change:
For Public Lands Protection:
Join environmental organizations fighting privatization efforts
Contact senators opposing public land sales in budget negotiations
Support Indigenous land sovereignty movements protecting sacred sites
For Pollinator Protection:
Plant native species to support local pollinators
Eliminate pesticide use in personal gardening
Support regenerative agriculture policies, reducing chemical inputs
Remember: individual responsibility without systemic change is just victim-blaming with extra steps.
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What Do You Think?
This analysis barely scratches the surface of how capitalism's contradictions manifest in public services, military policy, and environmental destruction. Share your thoughts below, especially if you've experienced delayed emergency response times or have opinions about striking a balance between national security and environmental protection.
Two questions for consideration:
How can communities build mutual aid networks that support first responders while addressing the root causes of emergency calls?
What role should Indigenous sovereignty play in protecting public lands from privatization efforts?
Despite these daunting challenges, both McDonough and Buchanan represent hope through competent, ethical leadership willing to speak honestly about systemic problems while working toward solutions. Their substantive discussions remind us that progress remains possible when expertise meets integrity, experience confronts ideology, and communities organize for collective liberation rather than individual accumulation.
The future isn't predetermined—it's a choice we make through daily actions, electoral participation, and long-term organizing. Choose accordingly.
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Living behind a memory care facility, it is obvious to me that one of the drains on our Firefighters/EMT's is understaffed privately owned care facilities that as a business model, rely on public services for any emergency medical interventions. There are full-turnout fire truck/ambulance events at this facility, which is roughly and 80 patient facility, regularly 3-4 times per week.
It is hardly a surprise that elderly, frail, patients will require more emergency medical interventions. These facilities should be required to be staffed 24 hours with medical personnel and equipment capable of dealing with them, instead of non-medical care-givers. Then only truly life-threatening emergencies would require transport. I have also been told that these private nursing homes are currently trying to pass municipal or state laws to make their use of public emergency resources free, instead of just subsidised by regional taxpayers as it currently is.