Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
Many firefighters in and around Nairobi, Kenya, wear equipment labeled for the Chicago Fire Department. Hank Clemmensen and 13 other retired and active firefighters from throughout the United States returned Dec. 13 from a two-week trip to Kenya, where they hosted an annual training seminar attended by more than 250 firefighters as part of the nonprofit organization Africa Fire Mission.
Planning documents list Clemmensen as a speaker on leadership for about 25 chiefs from nearby brigades who listened on such topics as interacting with politicians and community stakeholders.
David Moore Jr., executive director and founder of Africa Fire Mission, retired from the Glendale Fire Department in Ohio and met Clemmensen who was a board member with the International Association of Fire Chiefs, a job that made him an ideal recruit due to his national connections and vast experience in dealing with industry issues, Moore said.
Moore started the nonprofit after seeing the living conditions while he was on a trip to Africa as part of Mission of Hope International. He said Africa Fire Mission now has about 30 regularly active participants, and has decided to focus on training due to the $20,000 cost of shipping the used equipment to Africa.
“What often happens with a lot of donations, generally speaking, to third world countries is they end up sitting in storage somewhere because nobody ever teaches the recipients how to use the stuff, especially when the user manuals and labels are all in another language,” Clemmensen said.
Moore credited Clemmensen and Lt. Brooks Watson of the Chicago Fire Department for the recent donation of equipment, adding that fire departments in the U.S. require extensive paperwork and assurances that their donated items are leaving the country since regulations prevent their use after a decade of service.
For the longest time, there was only one fire truck in the Nairobi area and it was based at the airport because the Kenyan federal government wanted to reassure international travelers, and many of the embassies and bigger corporations had their own private fire response teams.
The most vulnerable people are the one million residents of five “slums,” Clemmensen said, where small dwellings are built from scrap material.
Some participants in Africa Fire Mission’s December training near Nairobi, Kenya, wore protective gear donated by the Chicago Fire Department. (Africa Fire Mission photo)
