The day was here, the final day of training in Padre Las Casas had arrived.
We had a very full day of hands-on training planned as our Firefighters Without Borders Canada Bomberos Project trip neared its end.
Once again, we had over 40 firefighters in attendance and we split them into two groups.
The firefighters were ready to go first thing in the morning on the last day of training in Padre Las Casas. (Photo: Amanda Smith/Quinte News)
One group had the opportunity to cut up a car and apply some of the knowledge they learned the day before. For many firefighters in attendance, they recognized the burned out shell of the SUV we were cutting apart from a car fire a week earlier.
Everyone was very excited to cut a car apart and they learned how to remove a door, do a roof flap, a side removal and an entire roof removal.
The part they were less excited for was how hot it became while wearing gear doing the auto extraction and how hard it is to do just a few cuts.
A firefighter takes their turn with the Jaws of Life during training in Padre Las Casas. (Photo: Amanda Smith/Quinte News)
Firefighters get the chance to work with their Jaws of Life cutting apart a car under close supervision. (Photo: Amanda Smith/Quinte News)
But just as they had all week, the groups persevered and accomplished what needed to be done.
The second group went up into an old, unused farmer’s field nearby and learned about fire development, reading smoke and got the opportunity to see how quickly a fire can grow in a home thanks to some burn boxes built earlier in the week.
Teaching the firefighters about reading smoke and fire behaviour. (Photo: Amanda Smith/Quinte News)
Putting out the fire in the burn box. (Photo: Amanda Smith/Quinte News)
After lunch the firefighters, their chief and the mayor held a small ceremony to thank us for making the trip down, taking time out of our lives to teach their firefighters how to better protect their communities and their citizens.
Once we had sorted out the gear we were leaving behind for three different departments, we piled into the van and headed to Barahona to drop off gear at the third hall.
It meant so much to these firefighters who were based out of a station that had no truck, two rooms and no electricity. They had gym equipment outside and no roof over a portion of their building.
There were no words to describe the feeling seeing these firefighters who had travelled 90 minutes one way each day to be trained by us, receiving bunker gear and just how happy they were.
This week has been so very rewarding to all involved and we are so proud of what we’ve been able to pass on to people we will forever call our brothers and sisters.
It was a very successful week of training in Padre Las Casas as part of the Firefighters Without Borders Canada Bomberos Project. (Submitted photo)
We may have passed on knowledge to help them be better at their jobs, but they taught us just as much.
This trip has been the most humbling and rewarding week and we already can’t wait to do it again.
(From left): Ron Switzer, Noah Edmonds, Irene Dickson, Ali Gratton, Tyler Robinson, Dan Boisvenue, Ryan Laliberte and Amanda Smith made up the Firefighters Without Borders Padre Las Casas crew. (Submitted photo)
