Welcome, Firefighters from Haiti
This article was written by Ben and posted on May 29, 2009. Ben Stubenberg is VP of TractorShare, a locally based 501(c)3 non-profit active in Haiti with equipment for agriculture development and civil disaster support. See their website at http://www.tractorshare.org.
Ben Stubenberg writes about a group of men and women from Haiti who have come for fire and rescue training at the Montgomery County Fire Rescue Service (MCFRS) Training Academy.
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This Memorial Day weekend, 13 fire fighters from Haiti arrived in Rockville for two weeks of fire and rescue training at Montgomery County Fire Rescue Training Academy. This is no small event; Haiti has almost no professionally trained fire and rescue workers.
Led by Chief Ardouin Zephirin, one of the very few who are professionally trained (in New Jersey), the group will learn swift water rescue, urban search and rescue, fire operations, and emergency medical services among other skills. These capabilities are desperately needed in the often storm ravaged Caribbean country of almost 9 million people that lies some 600 miles south east of the Florida Keys. Last year Haiti’s third largest city of Gonaives was hit with four successive storms, including two hurricanes, that left 800 people dead and thousands displaced.
The connection between MCFRS goes back over a decade when MCFRS logistics manager Ron Fornatora donated a shipment of badly needed fire protection gear to the city of Cap-Haitien following a request by Chief Zephirin. Up to that point, fire fighters in Cap-Haitien fought fires in jeans and T-shirts, often getting burned in the process. The protective jackets, pants, boots, gloves, and helmets enabled the fire fighters to get closer to fires and make more rescues.
A few years later, MCFRS fire and rescue workers traveled to Cap-Haitien at Chief Zephirin’s invitation to initiate a small training program there. Word quickly got out and Chief Zephirin was besieged with requests from other fire departments to be included in the training. MCFRS captains Lee Silverman and Rick Steer organized several training trips to Cap-Haitien, most recently this past April. This last trip also took them to Gonaives to draft a vulnerability risk assessment report to help prepare the city for storms sure to hit this season.
The Haitian men and one woman staying in and around Rockville will return to communities large and small and train others to respond to emergency calls for collapsed buildings, horrific vehicle accidents, and raging rivers that can wash away dozens of people in even a moderate rainstorm. At the tragic school collapse outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, last November, it was MCFRS trained fire fighters who were first on the scene and made life saving rescues.
Chief Zephirin notes “Haiti often gets international aid after a natural disaster but very little assistance to prevent or mitigate the damage before the disaster hits. Thanks to Chief Bowers and Fire Academy Chief Clemens, several MCFRS fire stations who are putting up members of our group, and in particular Captain Silverman and Captain Steer and Ron Fornatora, this can finally change.” Chief Zephirin went on to say, “Montgomery County and good people in Rockville have made a huge difference in my country through these fire and rescue training programs and saved many lives. Thank you!”
The trip almost didn’t happen. Chief Zephirin lobbied the Haitian government, which came through to pay for last-minute airline tickets despite being overwhelmed with demands to deal with a myriad of problems. But except for that, the 13 fire fighters were on their own to raise money to come to the US, including payment of $131 in US visa fees for each person, a small fortune in Haiti. Unfortunately, the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince could not waive the visa fees or providing funding.
After fund raisers and requests for funding support from family and friends, many already in dire financial straits of their own, the fire fighters managed to bring in what they thought was enough to pay for the visas and scheduled visa interviews at the US Consulate in Port-au-Prince. But on the morning of the visa interview, one fire fighter simply could not come up with $131 and had no relatives or friends who could help.
Chief Zephirin made a decision that everyone had to make this trip and asked each member of the team to contribute every dollar they had in their pockets, including bus fare back to their home towns. That brought in a total of $110, just $21 short. Now just minutes away from the visa interview, Chief Zephirin made a pitch to other people also standing in line for a visa to the US explaining the unique opportunity the group had to train at the MCFRS academy and how close they were to missing out. The Haitians, many of whom had barely enough for their own visa payment, responded and gave what they could to raise the additional $21 just in time so that everyone could make the trip.
For further information or interest in assisting Haitian fire fighters, please contact Ben Stubenberg at Bluewaterchange@comcast.net
In addition to working with MCFRS to support Haitian fire and rescue initiatives, Mr. Stubenberg organizes annual surgical trips to hospitals in northern Haiti and is promoting agricultural productivity in Haiti as vice president of TractorShare, a non-profit corporation based in Maryland.
Firefighters arrive from Haiti on Memorial Day weekend for 2 weeks of fire and rescue training
The following is an article by Ben Stubenberg of the Carter Hill neighborhood of Rockville, who has been involved in humanitarian work in the fields of medicine, agriculture, and training in Haiti for over a decade. Most recently, he assisted Chief Ardouin Zephirin of Cap-Haitien and Captain Lee Silverman of Montgomery County Fire Rescue Training Academy in bringing a group of men and women from Haiti for training to provide water rescue, urban search and rescue, fire operations, and emergency medical services in Haiti. Ben's contact information may be found at the end of the article
This Memorial Day weekend, 13 fire fighters from Haiti arrived in Rockville for two weeks of fire and rescue training at Montgomery County Fire Rescue Training Academy. This is no small event; Haiti has almost no professionally trained fire and rescue workers.
Led by Chief Ardouin Zephirin, one of the very few who are professionally trained (in New Jersey), the group will learn swift water rescue, urban search and rescue, fire operations, and emergency medical services among other skills. These capabilities are desperately needed in the often storm ravaged Caribbean country of almost 9 million people that lies some 600 miles south east of the Florida Keys. Last year Haiti’s third largest city of Gonaives was hit with four successive storms, including two hurricanes, that left 800 people dead and thousands displaced.
The connection between MCFRS goes back over a decade when MCFRS logistics manager Ron Fornatora donated a shipment of badly needed fire protection gear to the city of Cap-Haitien following a request by Chief Zephirin. Up to that point, fire fighters in Cap-Haitien fought fires in jeans and T-shirts, often getting burned in the process. The protective jackets, pants, boots, gloves, and helmets enabled the fire fighters to get closer to fires and make more rescues.
A few years later, MCFRS fire and rescue workers traveled to Cap-Haitien at Chief Zephirin’s invitation to initiate a small training program there. Word quickly got out and Chief Zephirin was besieged with requests from other fire departments to be included in the training. MCFRS captains Lee Silverman and Rick Steer organized several training trips to Cap-Haitien, most recently this past April. This last trip also took them to Gonaives to draft a vulnerability risk assessment report to help prepare the city for storms sure to hit this season.
The Haitian men and one woman staying in and around Rockville will return to communities large and small and train others to respond to emergency calls for collapsed buildings, horrific vehicle accidents, and raging rivers that can wash away dozens of people in even a moderate rainstorm. At the tragic school collapse outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, last November, it was MCFRS trained fire fighters who were first on the scene and made life saving rescues.
Chief Zephirin notes “Haiti often gets international aid after a natural disaster but very little assistance to prevent or mitigate the damage before the disaster hits. Thanks to Chief Bowers and Fire Academy Chief Clemens, several MCFRS fire stations who are putting up members of our group, and in particular Captain Silverman and Captain Steer and Ron Fornatora, this can finally change.” Chief Zephirin went on to say, “Montgomery County and good people in Rockville have made a huge difference in my country through these fire and rescue training programs and saved many lives. Thank you!”
The trip almost didn’t happen. Chief Zephirin lobbied the Haitian government, which came through to pay for last-minute airline tickets despite being overwhelmed with demands to deal with a myriad of problems. But except for that, the 13 fire fighters were on their own to raise money to come to the US, including payment of $131 in US visa fees for each person, a small fortune in Haiti. Unfortunately, the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince could not waive the visa fees or providing funding.
After fund raisers and requests for funding support from family and friends, many already in dire financial straits of their own, the fire fighters managed to bring in what they thought was enough to pay for the visas and scheduled visa interviews at the US Consulate in Port-au-Prince. But on the morning of the visa interview, one fire fighter simply could not come up with $131 and had no relatives or friends who could help.
Chief Zephirin made a decision that everyone had to make this trip and asked each member of the team to contribute every dollar they had in their pockets, including bus fare back to their home towns. That brought in a total of $110, just $21 short. Now just minutes away from the visa interview, Chief Zephirin made a pitch to other people also standing in line for a visa to the US explaining the unique opportunity the group had to train at the MCFRS academy and how close they were to missing out. The Haitians, many of whom had barely enough for their own visa payment, responded and gave what they could to raise the additional $21 just in time so that everyone could make the trip.
For further information or interest in assisting Haitian fire fighters, please contact Ben Stubenberg at Bluewaterchange@comcast.net
In addition to working with MCFRS to support Haitian fire and rescue initiatives, Mr. Stubenberg organizes annual surgical trips to hospitals in northern Haiti and is promoting agricultural productivity in Haiti as vice president of TractorShare, a non-profit corporation based in Maryland.
