Speaker: Our Guest Speaker Shawn Burke, is originally from Sydney, and has lived in Brookfield for 20 years. He works in transportation for three municipalities and has been married for 26 years to Carrie and they have a son Jordan.

 

Shawn has been involved with the Canadian Bomberos for the last five years. In the past, Shawn has spent five years with Colchester Ground Search and Rescue and more recently has spent five years as a volunteer Fire Fighter with Brookfield Fire.

 

Shawn shared his experience being involved with Canadian Bomerbos. Canadian Bomberos is a group of Canadian volunteer firefighters whose mission is to provide gear and help to disadvantaged firefighters throughout Mexico, Central, and South America.
 

Through the generosity of fire departments across Canada, they collect personal protective equipment (PPE) and tools and send it to firefighters in need. Since 2015, they have provided training to over 500 firefighters in Mexico, have gathered over 1200 sets of bunker gear and delivered 700 sets to Mexico, along with helmets and boots. They are currently working with over 20 fire departments in Mexico, Guatemala, and Uruguay and are urgently looking to collect PPE, helmets, gloves, hand tools, jaws, and fire apparatus to help them out. While the equipment collected may not meet the Canadian standard, they do inspect all equipment and ensure it is safe to use.

 

This past March Shawn and another member of the group drove for seven days in a U-Haul taking 7000lbs of gear from Brookfield to Central Mexico and then spent six days putting in training related to equipment that was delivered. 

 

Shawn talked a lot about how Canadian Bomberos got started. He originally saw a story on CBC about a fellow firefighter from PEI who was collecting gear from PEI and sending it over to Mexico. Shawn reached out on Facebook, and the rest is history so to speak! Shawn was storing hundreds of sets of gear in his garage when it occurred to him that he likely had surpassed the weight restrictions of the trusses! Sure enough, he was right. CBC Radio interviewed Shawn about the project and the lack of space, and in the same day a business in Dartmouth stepped up and donated a Sea Can. Another business also donated their services to deliver it. 

 

The gear that is donated to the group by fire departments across Canada has typically reached the 10-yr mark from its manufacturing date, which means it can no longer be used to fight interior fires in Canada. A guideline set by the NFPA. Many of these sets of gear have never seen fire and are in new condition.