| Fire Truck Donated to CAFSA |
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Leduc County has handed over the keys of a 30-year-old decommissioned fire truck to the Canadian Aid for Fire Services Abroad (CAFSA) organization. CAFSA is an Alberta-based, not-for-profit, humanitarian aid foundation whose main goal is to collect used, but still viable, personal protective equipment and supplies from Canadian fire departments and redistribute that equipment in developing countries. “There are thousands of firefighters in less economically developed countries who fight fires in nothing but their street clothes,” says Victor Fernandez, a firefighter with St Albert Fire Department and president of the CAFSA. “Thanks to the generosity of Canadian fire departments, we are able to make annual trips to South America and help our fellow brother and sister firefighters.” The intent is to the County’s donated fire truck to Bolivia in the fall. Each year the shipping costs to transport two fire trucks by sea are donated by a local shipping company. Volunteers then travel to the particular country to train the firefighters how to use the equipment. This truck, a 1981 GMC C6500 fire pumper, was decommissioned from Leduc County fire service in 2010. |
