Thanks to the persistence of Brockville City Councilor Jeff Earle, and Kingston Fire Chief Harold Tulk, the City of Kingston has donated four firetrucks to Canadian Aid for Chernobyl.  These firetrucks will be delivered with the spring 2009 delivery and be used in the region impacted by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.  Although no longer up to standards for use in Canada, these trucks will be of great value in this economically depressed area.

Four firefighters volunteered to drive the rigs down from Kingston to Brockville today including Randy Burke seen in the picture below with one of the two 1975 Ford Louisville 9000 pumper trucks.

In this picture (below) the other 3 trucks have just arrived along with Jann Smith who volunteered to drive them to Kingston and follow them home.  Ken Sine, an Ottawa firefighter, has volunteered to head up this project for Canadian Aid for Chernobyl.  He is seen in the picture below wearing a large fur hat to keep warm as the rig he drove had an open cab!  Ken along with three other firefighters have volunteered to travel to Belarus in the spring to deliver the trucks and complete training with the local firefighters.

This is the 1970 LaFrance King Seagrave 100′ ladder truck (with open cab), after being parked inside the Shorewood Packaging warehouse.  Shorewood has donated storage space for the trucks until they ship in February.

Parked beside it is the second 1975 Ford Louisville 9000 pumper truck.

Here is the fourth truck, a 1983 International Pierreville Pumper.

There is still a lot of work to be done getting them ready to go, equipment donations are already starting to come in.  Once again this community has really come together to help make great things happen.

Still on the agenda is raising the approximately $50,000 needed to ship these four trucks to Belarus.  CAC is looking for donations and 100% of all donations will go directly to this project.

Eric McKenzie

PS:  Stay tuned to this website as we will be bringing you updates on the firetrucks as well as the plan for the spring humanitarian initiatives and much more!