Phoenix Fire Department technical rescue crews were dispatched Wednesday evening to a mountain rescue near 7th Street and Mountain View Road, at the foot of North Mountain Park. The department said crews were actively engaged in the operation as of 3:28 p.m. local time, deploying its specialized technical rescue teams to reach a hiker in the rugged terrain.
The call, announced by the Phoenix Fire Dept. on social media, places this rescue squarely within the eastern access corridor to North Mountain and Shaw Butte, an area threaded by popular routes including Trail #44 and the Charles M. Christiansen Trail #100 within the Phoenix Mountains Preserve, according to the City of Phoenix. The terrain around North Mountain is known for steep desert climbs and paved access roads that wind up toward summit communication towers, features that can turn a routine hike into a lengthy extraction when something goes wrong.
A Summer of Surging Rescue Calls
This latest response adds to what has already been an unusually active year for Phoenix Fire’s mountain rescue teams. In the first five months of 2026, the department responded to 74 mountain rescues across city trails, a 50 percent jump compared to the 49 rescues recorded over the same stretch in 2025, according to the Surprise Independent. Phoenix Assistant Fire Chief Mark Gonzales presented the figures to the City Council’s Public Safety subcommittee, noting that calls averaged 15 per month between January and May.
The same reporting found that during the 2025 summer heat season, from May through September, 85 percent of mountain rescues on Phoenix trails were triggered by heat-related illness rather than falls or other injuries. City officials have warned that extreme heat can rapidly escalate minor exhaustion into a life-threatening emergency, a dynamic that shapes how crews prepare for every call during the hottest months.
Ground Crews Doing the Work of a Grounded Helicopter
Complicating this summer’s rescues is the continued absence of Phoenix’s primary rescue helicopter, a twin-engine Agusta A109E operated jointly with the Phoenix Police Department. The aircraft was pulled from service in late July for an extended maintenance overhaul, as reported by ABC15 Arizona and previously covered in Hoodline’s story on the grounded rescue helicopter. Phoenix Fire Captain Rob McDade has said rescues that would normally take 30 to 60 minutes by helicopter hoist can stretch to as long as three hours when performed entirely on foot…