Team Rubicon assists Oracle, Arizona with Wildfire Recovery
Team Rubicon Greyshirts discuss safety and site assessment during teh Cody Fire “Burning Rubber operation” in Oracle, AZ. Photo by T.C. Brown
Dozens of volunteers from across the Southwest are in the Oracle area from Sept. 10-20, 2025, helping the community with wildfire recovery. Volunteers from Team Rubicon, a veteran-led nonprofit humanitarian organization, are in Oracle to help residents recover from the devastation of the Cody Fire in May and protect the community from future wildfires. Team Rubicon volunteers, known as Greyshirts, perform wildfire recovery and mitigation operations year-round to ease the risks of wildfires to vulnerable communities nationwide, including several recent operations in Arizona, Utah, New mexico, Nevada, and California.
Team Rubicon is a national and local organization, with the ability to serve communities across the nation because Greyshirt volunteers live in every state, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Canada-including over 4,000 here in Arizona. This operation is possible because of our local Arizona volunteer leaders and the critical support from the Pinal County community, especially the Oracle Fire District, Oracle CERTs, Oracle Firewise, Oracle Living Word Chapel, Rotary Club of SaddleBrooke, YMCA Triangle Y Ranch Camp, Oracle Community center, Oracle Piano Society, Pinal County Public Works, and Pinal County Emergency Management. Thanks also to Simply Sandwiches and Way of Bean of Oracle, as well as Bubb’s Grubb in Catalina, who helped feed the volunteers.
The Cody Fire consumed over 1,200 acres in Pinal County, severely impacting the town of Oracle-destroying six homes, damaging up to a dozen other buildings, and impacting wells and water access. The Pinal county Emergency Management requested Team Rubicon’s assistance in debris management and removal, demolition of homes requested by homeowners so they can begin rebuilding and felling and removing hazardous trees to mitigate the danger of wildfires.
“This “Burning Rubber’ operation is to aid Oracle residents affected by the Cody Fire and protect the Oracle community at large. Over the next week and a half, just under 50 Greyshirt volunteers from all around the region are travelling to Pinal County to support this wildfire recovery and mitigation operation with