It’s a bit of a complicated year-long story, but the outcome is that a Mexican town is benefiting from some local fire equipment donations.
This began in March 2020 when the commissioners of North Whatcom Fire & Rescue at a board meeting surplused four ambulances that were at the end of their useful life span by U.S. regulations.
At the meeting commissioner John Crawford asked his four colleagues if he could reach out to the nonprofit Firefighters Crossing Borders and see about interest in one of the ambulances, a 1994 Ford.
FCB takes donations in the fire service such as vehicles, firefighter protective clothing, tools, etc., and in turn reaches out to foreign fire departments, primarily in Mexico, and gives away the donated items.
Crawford contacted Moi Castellon, CEO of Firefighters Crossing Borders. With the COVID pandemic just hitting full force at the time, the process of assessing the ambulance and associated gear was slow. A lot of pictures, emails and texts were exchanged.
North Whatcom also had declared surplus full sets of protective clothing no longer acceptable in the United States, but usable in Mexico.