End of the Road for a Fire Chief with Scott Freitag

End of the Road for a Fire Chief with Scott Freitag

From Code 3 - The Firefighters Podcast by Scott Orr

May 15, 2025 · 31 min · Episode 351

About this episode

This episode discusses the controversial firing of Fire Chief Scott Freitag and the political dynamics involved.

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 Union Local’s officials and, ultimately, the IAFF. Scott Freitag was the chief of the Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority, or CAFMA. The agency was created under Scott’s leadership when two fire districts combined under a JMA to form CAFMA in 2015. CAFMA covers 365 square miles of territory of Yavapai County, Arizona. And it serves about 100,000 residents from 12 stations. One day in August 2024, a press release showed up in email inboxes saying that the IAFF had censured Scott Freitag by a vote of 2,520 to 0.   I was pretty startled to get this news because I know Scott Freitag to be an honest, decent Fire Chief who was genuinely concerned about the welfare of his firefighters. As you’ll hear, the no-confidence vote led to Scott’s firing after 11 years as Fire Chief in September 2024. How this all went down depends on whose story you believe. It may well have had little to do with firefighting and much more to do with politics and a health plan.

People in this episode

Host: Scott Orr

Guest: Scott Freitag

Topics covered

  • firefighting
  • leadership
  • union politics
  • job loss
  • fire chief
  • health plan

Keywords

  • fire chief
  • job loss
  • union
  • IAFF
  • Arizona
  • leadership
  • politics
  • health plan

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority, IAFF

Places: Yavapai County, Arizona

More episodes of Code 3 - The Firefighters Podcast

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Code 3 - The Firefighters Podcast podcast page.