On October 21, 2006 Fire Chief James R. Monty of the Lathrop-Manteca fire department handed over a recently retired 1980 Van Pelt engine to the Tecate, BC Mexico Fire Department. Brought together through an organization of firefighters and emergency workers called Firefighters Crossing borders based in Washington State, the much needed donation to the firefighters in Tecate, BC was greatly appreciated.

Chief Chet Smith of Lathrop-Manteca FD contacted Firefighters Crossing Borders through our web site www.firefighterscrossingborders.org, with an engine recently removed from service. Knowing that we are always looking for donations, he offered their engine. We actively work with several (in need) fire departments and emergency medical agencies in Mexico and we determined that Tecate, BC Fire Department was in most need for this type of apparatus. Chief Smith was great to work with and arranged for the engine to be road worthy for the crew of Mexican firefighters that came to pick it up at their station.

Tecate Fire Chief Cesar Vitela came with a crew, including Ret. Captain Franco Soliz –a Firefighters Crossing Borders member, to pick up and drive the engine back to Tecate. We at Firefighters Crossing Borders wish to extend a grateful thanks to the members of the Lathrop- Manteca Fire Department for extending their generosity and joining us in helping fellow firefighters across our border.

Bob Brownne

Sun Post Newspaper

LATHROP – Lathrop Manteca Fire District’s oldest engine is headed to Mexico to start a new life.

On Thursday, Oct. 19, the district’s board of directors was scheduled to hand over Engine 39, a 1980 Van Pelt engine acquired by the district in 1981, to the Tecate Fire Department.

Lathrop-Manteca Chief James Monty said the engine has been in reserve the past 16 years and was ready to be declared as surplus. He said the last time an old local engine was retired, it went to the Linden Peters Fire District, which restored the engine and got a few more years of service out of it.

Engine 39 leaks some oil and shows signs of wear, but it only has 50,286 miles on it, and Monty said it has had no major mechanical problems. He figures the value of the engine at somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 today.

“It was our first-out right here in Lathrop for a number of years,” he said. “It was state of the art in its day.”

The district planned to host firefighters from the Tecate Fire Department in Lathrop for training exercises Thursday and today.

The Mexican department serves an urban and rural population of about 175,000, including a city with a population of about 91,000. The city is known in the U.S. for its beer, and it’s the next largest border town east of Tijuana. Monty said the department’s most remote station is 51 miles from the center of town.

The Lathrop-Manteca department learned about the Tecate Fire Department’s need through Firefighters Crossing Borders, a nonprofit group started by firefighter Joel Schwarz of Pierce County, Wash., in 2000.

According to the group’s Web site, Schwarz and other firefighters from Gig Harbor, Wash., started to take surplus equipment, such as hoses, air bottles and compressors, to Mexico after they learned that departments there rarely could afford new equipment.

The group has since made repeat trips to the Mexican cities of Tecate, Rosarito and Culiacan with donations and to offer training to firefighters in those cities.

To reach Sun Post reporter
Bob Brownne, call 239-6351 or
e-mail bbrownne@sunpost.net

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