26 February, 2015 at 12:27 pm
El Salvador Update
After arriving on Friday, the team spent the day sight seeing and learning more about El Salvador. On Saturday, We toured the Headquarters where we will spend the week training. Later in the afternoon, we visited Oasis Azul on and spent the day at the beach.
Sunday we toured a local Coffee Plantation and had lunch on the side of a local dormant volcano overlooking San Salvador. After lunch we took a drive to the top of the volcano and walked the trail up to look down inside.
Today our training with the Bomberos began and our day went really well working with 18 students with various experience. The day was finished off with Dinner at La Pampa steak house. We were joined by the Director (Fire Chief), the Sub-Director (Deputy Fire Chief) and the Vice Minister responsible for the Fire Service.
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26 February, 2015 at 12:15 pm
Started off the day with a ‘traditional’ Birthday toss. The Bomberos tossed the Birthday Boy into the air 30 times…once for each year.
Training today consisted of Water Supply and Hose Lines. Hot day in the Sun but, successful none the less!
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26 February, 2015 at 12:03 pm
Belize 2015 program hit the mid-week mark today. The course participants, all officers and sub-station officers seem to have hit their stride today, as have the logistics around the course. Everything is moving forward with momentum, as always in a training program running for five consecutive days, there will be challenges, but our FRITA instructors, the course participants, the Belize National Fire Service, and the British Army all continue to immediately pitch in to ensure the program is not impacted. In fact, most participants would likely not even realize the issues that have come up and been immediately addressed, amazing the level of support, buy-in, and teamwork going on!
Local media have been invited to observe the training sessions tomorrow afternoon, we all look forward to highlighting the level of skill and dedication that the members of the BNFS bring to serving their communities and country.
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26 February, 2015 at 11:51 am
Day 2 in Panama included high rise procedures with the Officers’ group and search and rescue techniques with the bomberos.
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24 February, 2015 at 12:19 pm
No Swimming…CROCODILES! So the team saw a crocodile on the way to training this morning in Belize, our excitement was dashed shortly thereafter by the course participants who laughed at us thinking a 6ft long crocodile was anything worth mentioning, apparently it was just a baby smile emoticon
Anyway, Day 2 of the FRITA training program in Belize went extremely well with participants rotating through the various sessions and the new burn building being put to its test. Lots of learning on both sides. The two members delivering mechanical training will be taking a group through the basics of Emergency Vehicle Operations tomorrow along with some basic preventative maintenance. As we have two reps from every fire station in the country, the hope is to have one from every fire hall attend so as to pass along the info to their respective crews.
Thanks again to the British Army (BATSUB) for their ongoing generosity and support throughout the training program.
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23 February, 2015 at 12:30 pm
Great start to the week working with the Fire Station Officers, Sub-Officers, and Leading Fireman of the Belize National Fire Service (BNSF). The BNSF use the British rank structure, so a Station Officer is equivalent to a Captain in North America and a Sub-Officer to a Lieutenant. Leading Fireman are the senior members qualified to act as a Sub-Officer but who have yet to be promoted.
VF&RS member and FRITA instructor Mike Canaday had pretty much free range at a vehicle scrap yard for the Auto-Ex Session today and all week long…lots of scenarios! In Belize what we in Vancouver call an MVI (Motor Vehicle Incident) is known as an RTA (Road Traffic Accident).
The props built on the weekend for the RIT and Fire Ground Survival Sessions held up well and presented the participants with challenges they enthusiastically embraced. Looking forward to tomorrow.
