Prince George, B.C. – A convoy of Firefighting equipment will be arriving in Prince George today, and heading out tomorrow, bound for Peru. 

The equipment an no longer be used in Canada because it no longer meets National Fire Protection Association standards, but the equipment is still in good working order and can be used   by the volunteer firefighters in Peru. 

The equipment will be donated under the banner of the Firefighters Without Borders Canada. 

The Regional District of Fraser Fort George’s   Fire Services Coordinator, Melanie Perrin has been collecting fire fighting equipment from around the Prince George area. The donations are expected to fill a 14ft cube van and will be added to the shipments of equipment bound for the countries served by Firefighters Without Borders Canada including Peru, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Greece. 

The City of Smithers has donated a 1976 International/Hendrickson/Nordic LTI 1050/200/85′ Platform truck along with their 1987 Amertek Crash Truck 500/500/75 foam/500 Dry Chemical. These trucks are  being stored at the Beaverly Fire Hall. 

The city of Kitimat has donated a 1978 Ford L900/Anderson 1500/500.  That piece of equipment   is to arrive in Prince George today and will be stored overnight at the Beaverly Fire Hall. 

Tomorrow, a team of volunteers will start their journey to Vancouver. 

All of the volunteers involved in this project are travelling at their own expense and using their own vacation time. The e costs of transporting the vehicles (fuel, insurance, etc.) will be funded by donations made to FWB Canada.  

Firefighters Without Borders Canada collects outdated firefighting appa­ratus and equipment and donates it to countries where there is a need. Since 2008, the group has donated 13 fire trucks, over 1000 sets of turnout gear, over 400 breathing apparatus and over 20 tons of equipment valued at over $2 million to Belize, Cebu Philip­pines, The Congo, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Thai­land. During this period they have also travelled for training missions to El Salvador- 5 times; Paraguay- 4 times; Peru- 4 times and once each to Panama and Thailand.