LETHBRIDGE – Firefighters often refer to their colleagues as brothers or sisters. Mark Matheson, a veteran firefighter for over 20 years, is going a long way to help some brothers in need.
“I’m joining a team from across Canada,” said Matheson. “We’re going down to Nicaragua to train and equip the firefighters there.”
Matheson is a part of GlobalFire, an international charity that delivers basic firefighting and pre-hospital emergency medical care training packages. They also provide emergency relief when needed. They’ve conducted training missions in Mexico, Guatemala, the Philippines, India and many more countries. This year, they are helping firefighters, or ‘bomberos’, in Nicaragua.
The bomberos in Nicaragua are volunteers and are largely under-equipped and under-trained. Canadian firefighters have strict equipment standards, so when new gear comes along, the older but still functional equipment must find a new home. GlobalFire is bringing a significant amount of dated North American firefighting gear to the country.
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This isn’t the first time Matheson has volunteered for an international mission. He’s been to the Philippines twice: once to train local firefighters and again to provide disaster relief following typhoon Haiyan.
He says even though they speak a different language, it is easy to find similarities with the locals he has trained.
“Their motivation, their desire to make a difference in the community… it’s all the same as what we have in North America.”
To this day, Matheson still gets messages from the firefighters he trained in the Philippines; the knowledge he passed on there three years ago continuing to make a difference. He is looking forward to a similar experience in Central America.
“They want to do the same thing,” said Matheson. “They just don’t have the tools.”
For more information on GlobalFire and their mission, visit their website.
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