Puerta Vallarta Fire Chiefs Official Visit To Calgary

On Monday, June 17th, Chief Adrian Bobadilla from the Puerto Vallarta Fire Department (Bomberos) was in Calgary for an officiial visit. His main goal was to be able to thank Chief Steve Dongworth and his Deputy Chiefs from the Calgary Fire Department and Chief Weinberger and Deputy Chief Garth Rabel from Airdrie Fire for all of the donations of surplus gear and equipment in the past 11 years. Before the first donation from CFD, the Vallarta Bomberos had 44 firefighters and only 1 firefighting coat. The first shipment, through Angels for Mexico, had 90 sets of complete duty gear and 6 skids of firefighting equipment. Life changing. It was a full day of activities that included Chief Bobadilla giving a presentation to the Chief and Deputy Chiefs about the current realities of the Puerto Vallarta Bomberos and what their needs are. This information was very well received with a response of. continuing efforts to help. The presentation was followed by a White Hatter ceremony at CFD Headquarters, a tour of our CEMA facility (disaster services), lunch at Firehall #2 and ending with a tour of the CFD Training Facility. CFD has offered to include, at no fee, firefighters from Vallarta in upcoming training sessions. Angels for Mexico will sponsor the travel costs of bringing a couple of the Bomberos here each year. Sentinel Storage paid for the travel costs for Chief Bobadilla and his wife, Adriana, to come here for this official visit. Angels for Mexico and Chief Bobadilla are extremely grateful for the generosity that was shown. They did expect anything in return but just felt it was the right thing to do to support the importance of this trip. As you can tell from the huge smiles on everyones faces in these pictures, it was a very happy and special day for all of those involved.

Christena