World News
Selkirk fire department sending old pumper truck to Brazilian community
The City of Selkirk and its fire department are sending a firetruck that’s past its prime to a village in Brazil that desperately needs it.The vehicle being donated is a 1989 Ford Pumper that still works, but has seen better days, said Selkirk Fire Chief Craig Fiebelkorn (City of Selkirk/Twitter)The City of Selkirk is sending…
The City of Selkirk and its fire department are sending a firetruck that's past its prime to a village in Brazil that desperately needs it.
The City of Selkirk is sending a firetruck down south — all the way down to South America, that is.
The city and the Selkirk Fire Department are shipping the vehicle that is past its prime to a village in Brazil.
The transfer is being done with the help of Firefighters Without Borders Canada, an organization that is dedicated to making sure firefighters around the world are equipped to handle the next fire emergency.
Selkirk Fire Chief Craig Fiebelkorn told CBC Radio Noon host Marjorie Dowhos on Monday that he got the idea from articles he'd seen about the work of Firefighters Without Borders.
“I figured, [the firetruck] doesn't really have that great of a dollar value, why not see if we can donate it to someone who can really, really use it?” Fiebelkorn said.
The vehicle being donated is a 1989 Ford Pumper that still works, Fiebelkorn says, but added that wear and tear is starting to take a toll on its internal mechanisms
The transfer won't cost the city a dime, because Firefighters Without Borders has partners that are willing to help out, said Fiebelkorn.
CN Rail will transport the pumper to Belleville, Ont., where another rail company will take it to New Jersey, where the Brazillian Navy will pick up the truck, he added.
Some people who heard about the donation were questioning why a firetruck wouldn't be shipped up north to Manitoba communities that need it.
Fiebelkorn said it's a valid question, and the reason is liability standards.
“In Canada, fire apparatus has to meet certain standards,” he said. “For us to donate it to someone that would need it here… we could give it to them, but there's no way we could ensure that they're going to bring it up to the standard.”
“If something happened bad, where they lost a life or a property because the truck failed, then we wouldn't want that coming back on us.”
The community the firetruck is going to is small, and its fire department is responding to fire emergencies in a Ford Escort, Fiekelborn said.
The new pumper should make their firefighters more efficient and much safer, he added.
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