Vandals slashed two water bladders in Round Valley at the end of September, potentially slowing the response to fires in one of the longest fire seasons ever.
The Army surplus bladders give fire trucks and helicopters a source of water in remote areas, making it possible to douse a fire when it’s small.
For more than a decade, Gila County District 1 Supervisor Tommie Martin has overseen development of the network of 20,000-gallon bladders. Geronimo Estates, Round Valley and other communities rely on these bladders to douse a fire quickly.
Now, the county’s struggling to maintain the network.
“We have had the two bladders at Round Valley sliced — after all these years of nobody bothering any of them,” said Martin. “When we replace them, we will be out of bladders and then I don’t know what we do next.”
Gila County has used the military surplus bladder system since 2006. But those bladders came from the early 1990 Desert Storm era.