Contact made with Lathrop-Manteca and Turlock

Although the day is not over, great experiences need to be shared. Just after lunch we met with Chief Roger Dooley from Turlock while he was on his way to take his wife to the Giants game. We thanked him and his department for their donation to the Bomberos of Tecate. We talked of current projects and wished him a exciting game.

Next we were looking for the Lathrop -Manteca Fd and fell upon the neighboring department for the city of Manteca station 243. Although not the station we were looking for ,we were invited in and were treated as friends. We talked about what we do and answered many questions. I think we have some more interested firefighters.

Then we made it to Lathrop-Manteca station 34 and met a great bunch of guys. Truck 31 rolled in to meet us and we had a great visit. Lots of questions and exchanging of stories. Chief Chet Smith whom we worked with to donate their Van Pelt engine last year, told us more of the odyssey that happened to make it all happen. According to chief Smith when the engine was to be surplused it had several problems. Knowing that Tecate could not repair the engine he sought out two friends, Ken and John who are vehicle manufacturers who are Burton’s Fire inc. (www.burtonsfire.com) who actually worked for Van Pelt and helped construct the 1980 being donated. They offered to repair and make ready the engine for the Tecate Bomberos. We did not know this when it was happenning but we want to thank all those who made this donation occur.