Last week, the Sedona Fire District said a fond farewell to one of the Verde Valley’s longest public servants, Fire Marshal Gary Johnson.
Readers may know Johnson from his regular quotes in our news stories and from his occasional headshot we would run alongside them.
Johnson was so much more than a public information officer. He went out of his way to help our staff get some of the amazing photography of wildfires, house fires, rescues and car accident extrications that we’ve been able to publish for our readers.
We could always count on Johnson to respond to a text or phone call, usually within minutes, about the sound of SFD sirens heading down the road, the nature of a fire call we heard over the scanner, or whether a particular emergency incident was something to which we should dispatch photographer and reporter immediately.
After work hours, Johnson would often text or call our photojournalists with tips. Photojournalist Mal Cooper got one of those calls when Lumberman’s caught fire in the wee hours of the morning in 2005. Thanks to Johnson’s call, we published striking photos of silhouetted SFD firefighters battling one of the city’s largest modern blazes.
When the La Barranca Fire started near the Village of Oak Creek in 2006, Johnson met Cooper at the perimeter and escorted her to the fire line to get front-page photos.
When the Brins Fire started a few weeks later, Johnson staffed the media command post, giving updates to reporter Cindy Hardy and photojournalist intern Andrew Hreha, while getting Cooper and I past the fire line on Jordan Road to speak with a Prescott Hotshot team on the roof of an Uptown home.
Johnson was constantly on the phone with photojournalist Tom Hood, bringing him to house fires and rescues throughout the district.
State and county law enforcement shut down Oak Creek Canyon when the massive Slide Fire hit in 2014, denying access to media around the state, but Johnson drove photojournalist Jordan Reece past the closure, right up to the fire lines and staging area where hovering helicopters loaded water.
If our photographers could not be on scene due to other assignments, Johnson supplied us with the photos we needed to best explain the news.
Johnson always provided the facts he knew and was quick to clarify certain assumptions or conjectures by witnesses or passersby were just that, and could not be confirmed until he knew more.
At less stressful SFD activities, Johnson was always a point of contact at community service events, making sure our reporters knew who to speak to and who to shoot.
As one of the installers of car safety seats for residents at SFD fire stations, Johnson may have saved many local children’s lives over the last four decades.
Johnson started working for SFD before I was born, but after 39 years, has finally hung up his helmet and retired to private life, leaving the district a stronger and better agency, perhaps one of the most transparent public agencies in the Verde Valley.
Knowing that he will remain in the area as a community figure, we wish him well in civilian life and thank him sincerely for helping us provide you, our readers, with the facts and images of the Sedona Fire District.
