Angels for Mexico is working with Firefighters Without Borders, and they are putting together a week of training for some bomberos, but it wouldn’t be possible without the Andalon family.
Why? Well, the family is so kindly donating their land to training causes, with a couple different flashover buildings to be able to set on fire. Flashover is when the air becomes so full of fuel it combusts on fire, so not only is the floor on fire, everything is. These buildings were specifically built on the land for this, but they’re used for all kinds of training. They’re both a couple stories tall, so bomberos can learn to pull hoses up stairs and other very important stuff, but not just fire training, they’re going to include medical training, jaws of life training, water rescues, car rescues, and others, so it’s not just about fires. They really get the best training here. In the past, Firefighters Without Borders has never gotten areas to properly train; in fact, they would have to work on an open field and would train how to use equipment, though they wouldn’t be able to replicate situations where that training would be needed. So, thanks to the Andalons 70-80 bomberos from Puerto Vallarta and the other 4 municipalities will receive professional training. From there, bomberos who do not attend will be able to be trained from the ones who did, and then they can train others, etc etc. But not only that, Christena Callahan, founder of Angels for Mexico, has a 40-foot container on it's way filled to the top with gear, equipment, and seven jaws of life! Also, in this coming year four fire engines are going to be flown here to Puerto Vallarta in a U.S military plane!!
But, aside from that, the Andalon family are the owners of And1-Fire, a fire extinguisher company, to say the least. And1-Fire is a company dedicated towards making gear for putting out fires and protecting people from fires, directed to the needs of residents. Some of their clients include Hotel St. Regis, Hotel Crown Paradise & Golden, Royal Decameron Bucerias & Guayabitos, Vallarta Adventures, and countless different condominiums.
And1-Fire has a variety of different services as well as products they offer, and no matter what is needed from them they will always be there with fast and quality service. They have, or course, equipment against fires, but what is that equipment? Well, they sell fire extinguishers, but not only that they also are able to refill extinguishers of any kind, inspect gear to see if it is properly working, quote you on different types of extinguishers and give you advice on what the best one(s) would be for the situation. So, for less than the price of buying a new one, you could simply get yours refilled, and voilà, you have a working fire extinguisher. Other equipment they sell is special fire-extinguishing systems such as automatics for kitchens, ships, and other places. Also, they sell personal protection gear, products to stop fires in a situation where extinguishers aren’t needed, and other products that can work instead of extinguishers if one isn’t working or if there isn’t even one present. And, on top of everything, they work with multiple programs, sponsor multiple programs, and like I said before, are contributing to bomberos of PV getting proper training so they can do their best job yet.
Article by Stan Gabruk on Angels for Mexico