Nahualá firefighters have many obstacles to overcome, not the least of which is the altitude of their home. Located at just over 8000 feet, even cars can have difficulty with the lack of air pressure. The roads into their picturesque town crest at over 10,000 feet. Like your grandfather’s school, it is truly uphill both ways.
Our friend, Francisco Chox, known as El Chivo, the goat, has invited us here for a tour of the station and to meet the other firefighters of this highland town. Chox is widely known in the Guatemalan Fire Service community for having completed his final physical skills exam at the fire academy while wearing only the traditional Maya traje under his airpack and helmet. This makes our knees hurt to even think about. He still wears the traje on duty, though he jokes, NOT in a fire.
Francisco has often travelled far to attend AMEDICAusa classes in other parts of Guatemala. So we felt it was only fair to visit Nahualá in return.
A trip to Nahualá: 3 Hours in Second Gear
Travel in Guatemala is, at best, difficult. Driving from the pacific lowlands into the mountains can be tortuous. The roads are narrow, serpentine exercises in frustration. Swerving from lane to lane around giant potholes, immensely overloaded trucks grind their way up the road at walking speed. Every small village boasts a series of túmulos, carnivorous speed bumps, that will destroy your undercarriage if hit at speed. (Tire and wheel shops are a fixture on the road next to these hazards.) Chicken buses, brightly painted, converted former U.S. school buses and the most common form of motorized transportation in Guatemala, pass you uphill and around corners, daring descending vehicles to collide. (and they do so in alarming numbers.)
Divided highways become two lane roads, then one way, cobblestone streets without warning. While Google Maps is surprisingly useful in Guatemala, only the foolish or suicidal would ever trust a shortcut provided by the service. Add rain and the odd landslide or two, and we begin to practice our repertoire of Spanish curses. Our trip is only 60 road miles, but it takes a full three hours to complete.
From Tropical Summer to Eternal Spring
Our “base of operations” in Retalhuleu, Guatemala is in the extreme heat and humidity of the lowlands. We are pummeled by fierce afternoon thunderstorms but is sunny and very hot in the morning. It is a land generally covered in sugar cane, palms and mango fincas outside of the city. The terrain is flat, and only occasionally broken by a river or small hill. The smoking Volcán Santiaguito, one of three Guatemalan Volcanoes actively erupting, marks our departure from the lowlands, and our slow climb into the spring time weather of the mountains. Palm and banana trees give way to pines as we near the community of Nahualá. There is a 25 degree drop in temperature and a welcome breeze as we near the summit of the Pan American highway. Lago Atitlán, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, can be glimpsed in the distance.
Nahualá is a K’iché Maya community.
Most of the residents speak K’iché as their primary language with spanish as their second.
As many as thirty percent do not speak Spanish at all.
K’iché is a melodious language, though, using sounds that do not exist in english or spanish, difficult for a gringo tongue. Inexplicably, it is odd to hear it spoken on the fire dispatch cellular telephone, as if an ancient language does not belong on modern technology. Substituting Spanish for the words that don’t exist in K’iché comes second nature to the firefighters. An interesting two and three language conversation arose, testing our patience as we groped for explanations and translations of fire department terminology.
Nahualá Firefighters: Rolling a Stone Uphill
Over 50,000 people live in Nahualá. Since most are indigenous Maya, most are impoverished. Protecting this town is one small fire company, 77 Compañía, Bomberos Voluntarios. The Nahualá firefighters are six “permanentes” (paid, career firefighters) and six more volunteers. The paid firefighters work a three man shift, on a 24 on and 24 off schedule for about $300 usd a month. Their fire engine is an elderly japanese truck, with 600 gallons of water and 100 feet of 1 1/2″ firehose. That’s it. No supply hose. There are no fire hydrants. There is no water tender (tanker). Meant for civilian use, what they call “firefighting” nozzles began life as standpipe nozzles in an American building somewhere. Of course, their bunker gear is threadbare and holed as well. Additionally, three of their twelve fire helmets date back to World War II, the others to at least the 1980’s.
Emergency Medical Care in the Cordillera
As in the U.S., in Guatemala the most common service provided by the Fire Department in emergency medical care. The firefighters are the primary source of EMS and ambulance transport throughout the country. Nahualá is no exception. The hospitals serving Nahualá are an hour or more away in either direction. Responding to these calls are two serviceable ambulance units, one a converted toyota van, the other a camper shell equipped pickup.
The van has a stretcher, an ancient Ferno model 30. Once common in the U.S. they are now largely abandoned because of the difficulty loading it into an ambulance, particularly here. (The K’iché are a diminutive people, it is the only place where we feel tall.) They can lift the stretcher only by sheer force of will. They are forced to lash it in place with rope because the floor mechanism that holds it in place is not available. On the other hand, only an old, unwheeled, wood and canvas military stretcher services the other. For bandages, equipment and other medical supplies, they rely on donations.
We talk over recent Nahualá recent calls, “War Stories” as they are referred to in the fire service. The nearest mutual aid fire companies are over an hour away. A month ago a tractor trailer plowed into a large group of people trying to assist a previous motor vehicle accident. The impact killed nineteen people and injured dozens more. Yesterday they spent eight hours on a mutual aid call retrieving the body of a french tourist who managed to walk over a cliff near Lake Atitlán.
AMEDICAusa to provide assistance
There is more to our trip than just a friendly chat. It is a chance to take a detailed look at what the fire company has, what they need and how we might help. After all, our disaster relief mission is training and equipping the fire and rescue services of Guatemala. An integral part of that process is evaluating the local services and sending our resources where they will do the most good.
Nahualá meets all of our criteria. A large population with a dedicated but under equipped fire company. No nearby mutual aid companies to assist, so we will not be duplicating services.. A willingness to train and work hard.
All we need is a little of your help.
Want to help in Nahualá and other impoverished areas of Guatemala? Donate a little of your hard earned money here. Contact us about donating used but serviceable fire equipment, PPE or apparatus. Get fully involved by joining us on a training mission in Guatemala. It is an experience you will not soon forget.