About Baja California

Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North Territory of Baja California. It has an area of 70,113 km² (27,071 sq mi), or 3.57% of the land mass of Mexico and comprises the northern half of the Baja California peninsula, north of the 28th parallel. The state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by Sonora, the U.S. State of Arizona, and the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez), and on the south by Baja California Sur. Its northern limit is the U.S. state of California.

The state has a population of 2,844,469 (2005 census), and estimated 3,165,776 (June 2009) much more than the sparsely populated Baja California Sur to the south, and similar to San Diego County, California on its north. Over 75% of the population lives in the capital city, Mexicali, in Ensenada, or in Tijuana. Other important cities include San Felipe, Rosarito and Tecate.

Baja California is where it all began, our visit to Tecate in 1999 started us on our path. We began working with the city of Tecate and the Bomberos from around the state. We have been working to bring agencies representing millions of citizens in the State together for more collaborative training and operations. Where borders were distinct and rarely crossed there is now more mutual assistance and development of resources.

In 2009, we began working with the group Bomberos De San Diego, a group of San Diego Fire firefighters that work in the area doing similar work. We partnered to bring training to Tecate initially and eventually worked in Tijuana Bomberos and were able to organize regional training at both Tecate and Tijuana inviting bomberos from around the area. Today, being one of the largest Cities in Mexico, we regularly rely on these Bomberos to assist us in our training.

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Mission Day 2

on 20 April 2008. Posted in Baja California

Arriving late Saturday after 22 hours on the road we had a great nite sleep at the Patty and Steve Marks Casa.

After a great breakfast we unhooked the trailer and emptied the truck and struck out to Mariposa county where Chief Phil Whitman was waiting for us with a warehouse of equipment no longer needed by his firefighting training school. We loaded up the truck and had a great lunch at a place called the Happy Burger. One of those great diners you hear about that serve anything and always great.

Following Lunch we headed to Turlock, Ca where we hooked up with the crew from station 33 and saw the 1990 Pierce Telesquirt being Donated to Mexico. Chief Roger Dooley of Turlock wrote to us and wanted to donate their third engine through Firefighters Crossing Borders.org. We loaded up the engine with the equipment picked up from Mariposa leaving little space. 2000 plus feet of hose, 40 sets of turnouts, 40 helmets and other equipment.

The engine will be shipped to the City of Culiacan in the Mexican state of sinaloa. A city of over 1 million they are most needing this type of apparatus of the cities we have contacted. The engine will be shipped off as soon as we can arrange the transfer and the particulars. Thanks to Chief Dooley and the City of Turlock FD.

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