Assisting fire services in South America

摘要

The International Fire Rescue Association (IFRA) is a charity, established in 2002, that provides assistance to fire and rescue services worldwide. Founded by Chairman David Kay OBE of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, IFRA has assisted over 24 countries so far, including over 57 missions. In 2013, an agreement was reached with the Firefighters Foundation of Argentina to provide assistance, equipment and training throughout, particularly in the San Luis province. From 2014, IFRA have sent several shipping containers of equipment, including a sizeable donation of PPE from Cosalt Ballyclare to Argentina. There have been three training missions where IFRA members have travelled to deliver a variety of response training. This report picks up our trip at the start of that third mission. Reunited at London Heathrow with my old friend and fire dynamics specialist Jim Dave (States of Jersey), we were straight down to business with the "proposed training schedule". Making some provisional plans, which invariably get tossed out of the window, we decided to focus on basic incident command structures, simple hazardous materials identification and our shared passion of fire behaviour and compartment firefighting.