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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Tecate 2009 Mission Day 5

on 25 March 2009. Posted in Baja California

Another fantastic day of training with the Bombero’s de Tecate. The sun was shining on us. High temp about 80F and no wind. Everyone was in their bunker gear with the exception of the instructors. Scott started the day with a couple of hours of lecture. We broke for lunch early, more taco’s… can’t get enough, and when we returned we went into the hands on portion of the training. Scott had requested ten cars. As we have learned several times in the past, flexibility is paramount. We ended up with six cars and were able to make everything work out great despite Scott’s stress. BTW a VW Westfalia is more of a challenge than one might think.

About 50 bombero’s and others from local volunteer rescue organizations participated. We had three stations. 1) Use of the Jaws hydaulic tools. 2) Use of hand tools including HiLift jack and SawzAll. 3) Vehicle stabilization. We utilized the cribbing we brought down. The bombero’s showed a lot of inguinuity that was inspiring. After training the Tecate Chief presented FFCB with a very nice plaque hand made of metal.

We were all impressed by what we saw today. We are enjoying watching all the Bombero’s grow and show their proffessionalism.

Tomorrow is an early day. We travel to Tijuana for more training. There will be about 15 bombero’s fromTecate participating in the training. There will be several firefighters from Bombero’s De San Diego teaching. We also worked with some of these instructors last year. More tomorrow.

Tags: Tecate Missions

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