Local fire departments receive nuclear survival kits

By Diane Saunders
Staff Writer

Logan Connor, left, a volunteer with the Physicians for Civil Defense, delivers a radiation detector and other supplies to Thatcher Fire Chief Mike Payne. Contributed photo

Gila Valley fire departments have recently been equipped with nuclear attack survival kits, including radiation detectors, thanks to the Physicians for Civil Defense.

Steve Jones, a volunteer with Physicians for Civil Defense, said he and other volunteers are traveling throughout Arizona to deliver the nuclear attack kits to small rural fire departments.

Each kit contains a radiation survival plan and two radiation detectors, according to Jones.

“Our idea is to get one (kit) to every small city fire department in the state,” Jones said in a phone interview. He was delivering a kit to the Grand Canyon Village Fire Department when he was interviewed by the Courier.

Safford, Thatcher, Pima, Fort Thomas and Bylas fire departments in Graham County received the kits shortly after Christmas. The kits were also delivered to fire departments in Greenlee County, Jones said.

“As local governments have no radiological monitoring equipment and very limited information about lifesaving measures in a post-attack environment, Physicians for Civil Defense has sent a team of volunteers, Steve Jones and Kevin McDonald, to visit small towns in Arizona and provide emergency response officials with an emergency nuclear attack kit on indefinite loan,” Dr. Jane M. Orient, the organization’s president, wrote in a news release.

The kit contains a manual, “Nuclear War Survival Skills.” The manual contains instructions for making a Kearny fallout meter. The kit also contains a factory-made meter.

Thatcher Fire Chief Mike Payne said while the attention given to the possibility of a nuclear attack on urban areas of the United States has dissipated since the end of the Cold War, the recent fighting in the Middle East may heighten concerns.

If there was a nuclear attack on Tucson, for example, the radioactivity monitoring equipment would come in handy.

“With this packet, we could at least tell when it’s safe to come out,” Payne said. Jones believes that equipping each fire department throughout Arizona with a kit will go a long way toward reducing panic in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.

“The biggest danger is panic,” Jones said.