Sinaloa Fire Training Symposium - 2016
Eight Firefighters Crossing Borders instructors arrived home safely from their recent mission to the capitol city of Culiacan to conduct the 8th Annual Sinaloa Fire Training Symposium.
This year's symposium took place January 25-27 and was divided into two tracks - rescue and firefighting. Students in the rescue track participated in three days of vehicle extrication. Participants in the firefighting track honed skills in nozzle and hose work, fire behavior, search and rescue, through live fire and smoke training. All participants attended an incident management session day one to continue stressing the importance of coordination, communication, and teamwork on every incident.
80 - 90 personnel from 9 departments across the state were in attendance this year, an annual three day school held each year since 2008 in Culiacan, the capitalcity of Sinaloa. Hosted by Bomberos Culiacan and Bomberos Amigos, the symposium is also an excellent opportunity for firefighters and officers to network annually. FFCB instructors have enjoyed the incredible hospitality each year, reuniting with fellow firefighters and their families in Sinaloa annually. This year's lineup of instructors included Edgar Tellez Ramirez (Firefighter-paramedic) from Fond du Loc, WI; Paul Spencer (Emergency Vehicle Technician) from Orcas Island, WA; Tim Frank (Lieutenant), John Cameron (Lieutenant), and Joaquin Hubbard (Firefighter) from Seattle, WA; Bronco Erickson (Firefighter/Rescue Technician), and Dave Stevens (Firefighter/Rescue Technician) from Snohomish County, WA; and Jordan Pollack (Instructor Coordinator) of Port Townsend, WA. Instructors as always brought down small safety equipment with them to ensure all participants had necessary personal protective equipment (gloves, hoods, lights, etc).
During the course of the year, FFCB is active assisting Bomberos Culiacan and Bomberos Amigos with procuring vehicles and equipment from the US and Canada. In 2016 8-12 pallets of fully operational fire-rescue equipment and tools, and 3-6 emergency vehicles will be moved from the US to the State of Sinaloa to begin their next chapter of service.
