Read Markley's previous dispatch.
It doesn’t matter what country we're in or what language they speak, this always happens, International Fire Relief Mission President Ron Gruening tells me. We're watching Roatan firefighters dig through various boxes of gear and mixing and matching turnouts and SCBA.
Gruening says this because only the day before he told all of the firefighters and the chief that the gear had been presorted and arranged by box and that each crew should take gear from the same box — crew 1, box 1; crew 2, box 2.
He explained the importance of using like turnouts because different gear offered different levels of protections. He told them how the different SCBA tanks and brackets were not interchangeable. The boxes also were built this way so that as the fire department expands, other fire stations can have turnouts and SCBA from the one manufacturer. Each box has been built to fully outfit six firefighters with matching gear.
Because IFRM collects gear from departments all across the United States, and because it does not have a large enough store of donations, sending a fire department gear from different manufacturers is inevitable if that department is to be fully outfitted.
So we watch as they pull pants from one box, a coat from another, an air tank form yet another and a bracket from somewhere completely different. We had brought both high- and low-pressure SCBA. They collect their gear and gather in the open-air bay. Almost none of what the firefighters assemble will work.
It happens everywhere we go, Gruening says.
When the firefighters have their gear selected we have them put it on for a fit test. Here is where we reconstruct the proper sets by getting one guy a new coat another a different set of pants, and so on. We do the same with the SCBA. The way we get this point home is to show them that the maximum number on both the tank and PASS monitor must match; in this case it is either 30 or 45.
There's a language barrier, there's a cultural barrier and there's a training barrier. We are really not sure what will happen to the "sets" gear once we leave. But, you do the best you can.
Over five days, IFRM will teach the firefighters about the capabilities of their PPE, parking apparatus to protect firefighters from traffic, small crew structure fire attack strategies, auto extrication, rehab, and pumping. During the second week, IFRM will teach EMS classes at the Parrot Tree, a swanky resort where Honduran dignitaries go to hold media conferences — the head of security was there earlier in the week and the president will be there later.
These are young men and some are easily bored. During the class sessions some doze off, mess around with one another or chat up the young woman who serves as an administrator. One young man asks the fire chief if he can have one of the new Rosenbauer European style helmets. When the chief asks him why, the man says he wanted to use it for his motorcycle (the chief nixes the request and makes him do pushups as punishment).
Yet others are dialed in. They ask questions about shoring up autos and why fabric hoses are better than the rubber hoses for attack lines. They are engaged, they listen to the translations and they take notes.
It would be a good deal cheaper and easier to ship the equipment and sit at home waiting for confirmation that it arrived. But doing so would be a disservice to the numerous fire departments that contributed gear. It would be a disservice to companies like Rosenbauer and GearGrid that support IFRM with money, equipment and services. It also would be a disservice to the firefighters receiving the gear. Maybe the gear never reaches the fire department and winds up on the black market. Maybe the gear is misused to the point of posing a greater risk than the department's original equipment.
Two weeks of on-the-ground training provides no guarantee that the equipment will not find its way to the black market or be used for motorcycling. But, it improves our odds of maximizing the donations. Hopefully, when some decide to leave the fire department to work as pool boys at a local resort, it will be those horsing around in class.
And hopefully those who remain in the fire service are those who were taking notes and asking questions. That's why we train, and that's what makes this effort worthwhile.
Read Markley's previous dispatch.
