Napa Valley Register | Firefighters without borders

Napa Valley Register | Firefighters without borders

By JESSE DUARTE
For the Register

Saturday, March 03, 2007

The Nicaraguan capital of Managua is now better protected against fires, thanks to training and equipment provided by St. Helena firefighters.

In February, six St. Helena firefighters brought 800 feet of hose and other equipment to Managua and spent five days teaching wildland firefighting tactics to any Nicaraguan firefighters who would listen. The St. Helena group’s efforts were rewarded just minutes after a training exercise, when the newly trained firefighters neutralized a real-life blaze that threatened several buildings.

On the last day of the trip, Jake Scheideman, Brandon Tsukroff, Jorge Garibay, John Sorensen, Oscar Arenas and Tony Leonardini had just finished teaching the Nicaraguans how to take on a wildland fire,. Scheideman said he and his companions were feeling a little frustrated that many Nicaraguan firefighters were too proud to participate in the training.

“Some of those guys were just thinking, ‘Oh, come on, why are these guys here?’” said Scheideman. “They refused to participate. There were egos involved, but I think that happens worldwide.”

Immediately after the willing trainees had put out their final controlled burn, cell phones started ringing, alerting them to a downtown fire. The international team rushed to the scene.

“All the other people who had chosen not to do the training didn’t know what to do, and they were just standing there,” Scheideman recalled. “But we just went right past them.”

The fire was in a dry ravine, with buildings on either side. In addition to grass and trees, the blaze was consuming garbage that had collected in the ravine. The region’s usual 10- to 30-mph winds weren’t helping matters.

Fortunately, the training covered this type of fire, and the Nicaraguans brought their new hoses to bear on it, using a progressive hose layout to work their way toward the fire without running out of water.

The St. Helena group gave directions, but left the hose work to the Nicaraguans, who had the fire out in about 15 minutes.

“They put it out exactly the way they had been trained,” Scheideman said. “Everybody got a big kick out of that.”

Scheideman said that with the region’s dry, windy conditions, wildland fires pose a major threat around Managua. During the five-day trip, two major brush fires and one structure fire flared up in the area. Prior to the St. Helena group’s donations, local firefighters were unequipped to deal with wildland fires, said Scheideman. They had 50-foot hoses on their engines, but lacked the longer hoses that allow them to fight fires far away from needed water sources.

Workers at the U.S. embassy in Managua relied on the Managua fire department recently, when the building was when threatened by a fire. During the trip, the embassy’s head of security thanked the St. Helena firefighters for offering the training, which ultimately benefited about 25 firefighters.

Scheideman said the Nicaraguans told them that while they receive plenty of donated equipment, the St. Helena group is the only one that teaches them how to use the gear safely and effectively. They also taught basic firefighting tactics like attacking the edges of a fire rather than the center.

The St. Helena firefighters used controlled burns to train the Nicaraguans, but with winds routinely approaching 40 mph, “controlled” is a loose term.

“It’s really inspiring to make a difference at that level, to help out a group of people who have the same passion we do, but have no training and no resources to do their job,” said Scheideman. “We brought all the equipment and showed them how to use it and work together as a team — something we do all the time here, but they’d never done it before.”

This wasn’t the first time St. Helena firefighters have helped out the Nicaraguans. Last year, Scheideman, Sorensen, Tsukroff, Garibay, Gilberto Maldonado and Napa firefighter Cesar Lopez spent six days training Nicaraguan fire and rescue personnel how to use the Jaws of Life to free passengers trapped in wrecked vehicles.

The trips are paid for by private donations.