End of the Road for a Fire Chief with Scott Freitag

This edition of Code 3 is a little different than most.It’s about a Fire Chief who lost his job after he incurred the wrath of the UnionLocal’s officials and, ultimately, the IAFF. Scott Freitag was the chief of the Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority, orCAFMA. The agency was created under Scott’s leadership when two fire districts combined undera JMA to form CAFMA in 2015.CAFMA covers 365 square miles of territory of Yavapai County, Arizona. And it servesabout 100,000 residents from 12 stations.One day in August 2024, a press release showed up in email inboxes saying that theIAFF had censured Scott Freitag by a vote of 2,520 to 0. Iwas pretty startled to get this news because I know Scott Freitag to be anhonest, decent Fire Chief who was genuinely concerned about the welfare of hisfirefighters.As you’ll hear, the no-confidence vote led to Scott’s firing after 11 years asFire Chief in September 2024.How this all went down depends on whose story you believe. It may well have hadlittle to do with firefighting and much more to do with politics and a healthplan.