Trenton Fire Dept. donates equipment to Guatemala

TRENTON, Texas (KXII) -A Texoma volunteer fire department recently gave back to a fire station nearly two thousand miles away.

Trenton Fire Chief C.J Fillingham said, “we’re paying it forward a whole bunch, is what we’re trying to do.”

Not only does the Trenton Volunteer Fire Department serve its community, but the department recently donated extra equipment to a fire department in great need.

After seeing a video of Retalhuleu Volunteer Fire Department, in Guatemala extracting individuals in a vehicle with a pry bar, the department knew they had to help.

“We take it for granted, until you see something like that, going on down there, I don’t want to use it but a third world type country are doing there, they’re still in the dark ages compared to what we are here in the United States,” said Chief Fillingham.

Chief Fillingham said using the pry bar is an outdated method used to extract individuals from damaged vehicles after severe collisions, “we’re fortunate that we had three additional sets of “Jaws of Life.”

‘Jaws of Life’ is a hydraulic-extrication rescue tool that helps extract people quicker after a crash.

Chief Fillingham said, “minutes counts, it’s going to go from a 45 minute extraction to a 10-15 minute extraction and its really going to depend on the severity of their entrapment too.”

Along with a set of ‘Jaws of Life’, Trenton Fire sent a two-thousand-gallon folding tank, “they’re very rural down there, so they’ve got to transport their water, and if they’re transporting by truck, they got to empty their truck before they can go back and get water. With this tank, they can come, dump in the tank and they can keep supplying the tank and just run a water shuttle.”

Chief Fillingham said both tools will go far in Guatemala.

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