PHOENIX — With Election Day hours away, the Phoenix Fire Department is preparing its members for an unexpected role: protecting ballots from fire.
While there are no specific active threats in the Valley, Phoenix fire crews are aware that ballot drop boxes have been targeted in other parts of the country.
This year in Los Angeles, mail-in ballots burned inside a drop box. In 2024, two ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire.
In Phoenix, less than two weeks before the 2024 election, Phoenix firefighters responded to a fire in a mail collection box that had burned ballots inside.
This year, the department is preparing all of its members with a specific approach: use a dry chemical extinguisher, not water.
"We want to make sure the entire department is aware of this," said Captain Rob McDade.
For a ballot box fire, the plan is straightforward.
"We're gonna open that ballot box, spray the dry chem, close it. It's going to take away that oxygen, hopefully put that fire out," McDade said.
The goal is to save every ballot so it can still be counted and to treat any ballot fire like an arson scene.
"Protect those, just like we would on a fire where there’s criminality. Where there's a fatal fire, we always preserve the evidence. We put out the fire but we don't pull apart all the rafters, all the walls. We like to put out that fire and sort of leave it as is," McDade said. "Investigators come in and do all that work, so we're telling our firefighters the same thing is true with ballots or ballot boxes."
ABC15 also reported this summer on ballots stolen from a Scottsdale post office drop box.
McDade said the department's preparation comes down to how much Election Day matters.
"Not only are we going to be answering the normal 911 calls we do every day, but there's an emphasis on being aware of what that day means," McDade said.
