We arrived on the island of Roatan mid afternoon on Saturday and were met by Joe, a retired American paramedic who relocated to the island six years ago. Our first stop was Roatan's one fire station.
Roatan, pronounced row-a-tan, is part of Honduras and about a 90-minute ride by ferry north of the mainland. The island is about 40 miles long and five miles wide. Roatan is a hotbed of tourism, drawing well over a million visitors each year. Its large barrier reef is second only to that of Australia, making it a popular destination for divers. The fire station we visited is the only one on the island.
I'm here with the International Fire Relief Mission. For the past year or so, I've been volunteering what time I can to help IFRM; this is my first overseas trip with the group.
From a leadership standpoint, this fire department faces numerous challenges. Honduras has a national fire service, which does not include Roatan. The Roatan firefighters sport the same sand-colored jumpsuits and high military boots as do their mainland counterparts. But Roatan Fire and Rescue is a municipal organization. As such, it is, from a financial and organizational standpoint, on its own. It does have one pumper on loan from the mainland, which of course could be reclaimed at any time. During our first visit, the island's one ambulance was out of service due to busted rear suspension--they were hoping we could fix it. IFRM President Ron Gruening is a retired paramedic. He believes the air ballasts used to raise and lower the backend of the ambulance are ruptured and suggests that any truck repair shop should be able to replace those with coil springs. It is hard to tell by this meeting if they really believed we could fix the ambulance, but in the end we had to walk away leaving its rear bumper inches from the ground.
The fire station is staffed with a five-man crew that works 24 on and 24 off. Despite having a crew always on duty, response times can be as much as 30 minutes, one man told me. Part of the problem is that the locals don't know or won't use the national emergency number (*199). The locals tend to call the fire department after their own efforts to stop the fire fail. "They save a lot of foundations," one man tells me. This may be a good thing, given that the fire department has no working SCBA; the tanks are so deteriorated the dive shops refuse to fill them. IFRM's donations include SCBA sets.
The five firefighters on duty the afternoon we arrive, are young, very young. One reason, I learn, is that they are so poorly paid the fire and rescue service mostly attracts those without families or those who can find no better work. Often, a firefighter will join, go through training, and leave for better-paying jobs; many wind up as pool boys at the nearby resorts.
Another challenge, I'm told, is the island mentality. Two men tell me that islanders tend to believe they know everything and will continue doing things the same way regardless of how hard someone tries to teach them different. I imagine a good many fire chiefs are thinking that this is not unique to Roatan. Nonetheless, it may be an obstacle for the IFRM team as it embarks on its two-week training mission. Gruening says they often encounter this attitude in countries they visit. You have to let that play itself out, he says. After the first day, some of the firefighters will be pulling him aside to ask for more information. Once this happens, everyone will begin accepting the training and giving it their attention.
On Monday we are set to unload the shipping container of donated gear and transport it to the fire station. There remains some concern about getting to the gear; the fire commissioner who had been working with us now finds himself politically on the outs. We are not sure what we will find when we arrive at the dock Monday morning.
Rick Markley is a volunteer with the International Fire Relief Mission, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that collects donated used fire and EMS equipment and delivers it to needy fire departments in developing nations. Once a delivery is made, IFRM sends a team to that country to train its firefighters on the safe and proper use of the donated gear. Markley is with IFRM team on the Honduran island of Roatan and will be sending a series of dispatches to FIRE CHIEF about his experience.
Before there was a Roatan Fire and Rescue, Leland Woods served as vice president of the committee to form it. Woods is also a city councilman. When they got the department running in 2003 and the municipality took it over, Woods was appointed its fire commissioner.
I met Woods next to a sea container at Hybur, the Honduran shipping company that transported the International Fire Relief Mission's donated gear from Miami to Roatan — free of charge (Anderson Trucking Services had moved the gear overland in America, also sans payment). As the Hybur forklift driver loads pallets from the sea container onto the bed of a small delivery truck, Woods tells me the annual budget for Roatan Fire and Rescue is the dollar-equivalent of about $100,000. It's the reason they can pay firefighters only $300 per month.
How much money does the department need to be adequately funded?
About double what it gets now, Woods tells me. What are the chances of getting that or any additional money? Woods shrugs.
The fire commissioner is a political appointment. During the last election, the mayor who appointed Woods lost. Woods' party also lost its majority. He says the new mayor is cooperative, but when there's economic distress in the United States, it is worse in Honduras. The recession has this mayor fiscally cautious, Woods says.
Most of the island's tourist development is along the east side; the plan is to fully develop the west. Woods says the fire department needs two more satellite stations to properly cover the islands; he's offered to donate the land for one of those stations. However, it still comes down to money. Even with the land, the government would have to build and equip a station and staff it.
It takes two small trucks making three trips to move the gear from the shipyard to the fire station. At the station, Roatan's 10 firefighters will unload the boxes without the aid of a forklift. As we're waiting for the first truck to arrive at the shipping yard, IFRM President Ron Gruening shows me a box full of turnout coats and pants. He pulls back a layer of used gear to reveal sparkling clean tan Globe bunkers. A dealer had donated them, all new. Gruening says that he's learned to hide the new stuff under a layer or two of used and dirty gear. Someone in customs is less likely to steal the used stuff and not likely to dig to the middle of the box where the new gear is hidden.
In addition, Rosenbauer kicked in new European-design helmets and firefighting gloves. There also are brand-new MSA SCBA tanks and masks. All tolled, there are six sets of new turnouts — save for the boots, which are all used — to compliment the used gear.
One item that isn't making the trip from the shipping yard to the fire station this morning is a 1976 engine donated by Hartford, Conn. It is an old truck and may not have the wow appeal that new bunkers will have. But the Hartford chief assures us it is in tiptop shape. Given the area the department must cover and the age and condition of its apparatus, the Hartford engine may prove valuable. The reason we cannot deliver it, Woods says, is because it lacks the proper documentation to have it released from customs. Again, he shrugs. He trying to get the matter cleared up so it can be delivered by next week. That night, the local television news shows a family that lost all its possession to a recent house fire.
We follow the last truckload of gear from the shipyard to the fire station.
The fire station is a 2-story rectangle stucco building with living quarters on the second floor. At the far end of the main floor is a room with one piece of exercise equipment and several hotplates on tables. At the other end is an office and a meeting room that is about 12 by 15. The meeting room is also the dispatch center. The department's three apparatus and two ambulances are parked outside under carport-style roof; the only protection from the corrosive sea air.
With the trucks now unloaded the firefighters pour over large shipping boxes of gear. They are like kids at Christmas, but not greedy, obnoxious kids. These are happy, grateful kids. Watching this play out, I realize that despite the lack of government support, that many look younger than 18, and the sub-poverty wages, these guys are firefighters. They are passionate firefighters excited by the bounty of new gear.
Read Markley's next dispatch.
To learn more about IFRM, visit www.ifrm2007.com
