FEATURED STORY

Firefighters to the Rescue in Guatemala

Rollinsford Fire Chief, Mike Spinney, displays the firefighting equipment his department donated to MAG to help the crash rescue team at Mundo Maya airport.

Pallets ready to be loaded into an ocean container – thanks to the good folks at IMEC in North Andover, MA. IMEC (www.imecamerica.org) also donated several pallets of medical supplies along with the use of their shipping department and staff to get our cargo to Guatemala.

Donated fire gear.

When MAG President Sean Donnelly visited the Emergency Services Department at the Mundo Maya International Airport in Flores, Guatemala in February 2009, he found more than an invitation to base an air ambulance there. “The crash rescue crew has just about no working gear, including protective equipment”, Sean recounts. “I decided right then, that if we were coming to Guatemala to save lives, we might as well start with these guys!” Fire departments and fire equipment companies from across New England answered the alarm.

The Burlington, MA, Rollinsford, NH, Eliot, ME and Kittery, ME fire departments as well as Bergeron Protective Clothing Inc., and Globe Manufacturing Company have provided turnout gear, boots, gloves, helmets, breathing equipment, exposure suits, hose, nozzles, and other supplies—and even a fire truck if we can get it there. Six pallets of gear is on its way to Mundo Maya.

This gift will do more than potentially save the lives of these firefighters and those they might rescue. It has built a bridge of compassion and cooperation that will allow MAG to establish a base from which “help and hope” can flow to the entire Peten.

Donated fire hose.