PHOENIX — Amid the extreme heat in Arizona, Attorney General Kris Mayes is renewing calls for FEMA to recognize extreme heat as eligible for major disaster declarations.
Tuesday’s petition from her office signed by other Attorneys General comes after Phoenix city leadership and a Valley representative called for the change last year.
“I think it’s a matter of both urgency because we have so many deaths and because we have so many vulnerable people who we could maybe reach and save their lives if we had more federal resources,” said Joellen Russell.
Russell is a distinguished Professor and Climate Scientist at the University of Arizona.
Russell echoed many of the concerns AG Mayes wrote in a petition that was also signed by 13 other Attorneys General. The group also asked for the addition of wildfire smoke events and clarification that wildfire smoke events are eligible for Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) funding.
“These are disasters at a national scale, and …