Three Edmontonians are on their way to Mexico on a fire truck they will donate to a town south of Cancun.
While vacationing in Puerto Morelos, Brad Volovich learned the local fire department was ill-equipped to service an area popular with tourists.
He phoned Chris Hardeman, a retired Edmonton fire captain, to ask if the city could donate a used truck. Two years later, Volovich, Hardeman and Roger Poon embarked on a 6,200-kilometre drive to take the truck to Puerto Morelos.
“[It] used to be the pride of the fleet,” Hardeman said. “Now it’s going to be the pride of the Puerto Morelos fleet.”
Leon Salis Licea, the chief of the Puerto Morelos Fire Department, told CTV News Puerto Morelos became a municipality with 30,000 residents in 2016. It shares 18 firefighters, three pickup trucks and a rented water truck with another town in the area.
“We are moved by the generosity of our Canadian neighbors [sic] in Edmonton … The men driving the truck down now as we speak will be responsible for saving lives in the future of Puerto Morelos.”
Fire departments across North America—including in Lethbridge, Ohio and Colorado—have filled up the fire truck’s compartments with equipment. When the 25-year-old truck’s engine caused trouble near Denver, a local fire hall stepped up to help.
“The generosity has been overwhelming,” Poon, who took three weeks off work, told CTV News.
The three men are in Texas as they wait for paperwork to cross the border with the truck.
With files from Dan Grummett
