US Firefighters Help Mexican Brothers

IAFF members from Washington state and California recently returned from helping fellow fire fighters in Mexico as part of their work with Firefighters Crossing Borders (FCB). The group visited three Mexican cities (Tecate, Rosarito and Culiacan) to deliver donated fire equipment and conduct training.

Joel Schwarz, a member of Gig Harbor, WA Local 3390 and founder of Firefighters Crossing Borders started the charity seven years ago after participating in a church mission to Tecate. On that trip, I met a fire fighter who was telling me about his plans to better the fire department, says Schwarz. At the time, I knew my department had a surplus of fire hoses. Donating the hose surplus is where it all started. We've been going down every year since with donated equipment and then training the Mexican fire fighters on that equipment.

To date this year, FCB has made two trips. In April, the fire fighters were in Tecate and Rosarito to deliver turnouts, automated external defibrillators (AEDs), generators, medical supplies and other safety equipment.

This year, Firefighters Crossing Borders acquired one of the largest pieces of equipment from a training facility in Washington that was getting rid of one of its ladder trucks.

The challenge was finding a Mexican fire department that could take it, says Schwarz. Fortunately, we were contacted by someone who knew a fire commissioner in Culiacan. In a matter of weeks, it was done. Now, the city has their very first ladder truck because of us.

FFCB members traveled to Culiacan in May to train them on the truck in May.

This article posted at the IAFF website.