Safety Harbor firefighters help train volunteers half a world away
By Rita Farlow, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, November 28, 2009
Courtesy of Capt. Ray Duke, Safety Harbor Fire Department
Safety Harbor firefighter-paramedic Capt. Ray Duke demonstrates the “fireman’s carry” during training with Filipino firefighters. Duke and Charles Russell recently took equipment and training to Lamitan.
Half a world away, the fire departments in Lamitan, Philippines, had firefighters but no trucks, no hoses and no training. They had nothing," said Safety Harbor fire Capt. Ray Duke. That started to change in 2006 when Duke was approached by Ray Dudgeon, a fellow member of Safety Harbor First Baptist Church.
Dudgeon, one of the founders of Global Improvement for Tomorrow, a local nonprofit humanitarian organization, was planning a missionary trip to Lamitan and asked Duke if he would be willing to help train the firefighters.
The group started collecting used firefighting equipment in advance of a 2007 trip to the Philippine island notorious for kidnappings and bombings by Abu Sayyaf, a militant terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaida.
Duke gave the Lamitans a crash course in how to put on bunker gear and use the donated equipment.
"They knew absolutely nothing about firefighting except the wet stuff goes on the red stuff," Duke said.
Last month, Duke and fellow Safety Harbor firefighter-paramedic Charles Russell joined 12 missionaries on a return trip to Lamitan.
They spent two days there, teaching six state firefighters and more than 20 volunteer firefighters basic search-and-rescue techniques and how to perform "drags and carries" to pull people from burning structures.
The Lamitans are so hungry for training, said Duke, "they're glued to every word you say."
The two Safety Harbor firefighters demonstrated CPR, a procedure the Lamitans had heard of but never seen in action. They taught their Filipino counterparts the universal sign for choking (hands clutched to throat) and how to perform the Heimlich maneuver.
"They'd never heard of it," said Duke.
The missionaries shipped a cargo container full of rope, boots, webbing, hoses, helmets and other supplies, some of which was donated by the Anclote Fire and Safety company in Tarpon Springs.
Youngsters from Safety Harbor Fire Explorers donated money that went toward bouncy balls, rubber bracelets and small Beanie Babies that were handed out to local children. For the Lamitan firefighters and guards — Filipino marines and mercenaries who were hired to protect the Americans — Duke and Russell brought flashlights and pocket knives.
Besides providing training and equipment, the mission supplied food, supplies and ministry to Filipinos in various areas over 10 days.
"It was a life-changing experience, for sure," said Duke, 47.
Just one short visit to the island could change the future of Lamitan public safety efforts, said Russell, 24.
"If one life was saved, then my going there made a huge impact," Russell said.
Duke learned that his training in 2007 had already made a difference. A market fire broke out six months after he left.
"They were able to save half the market with what they'd learned," Duke said.
Rita Farlow can be reached at farlow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4157.
To help
Global Improvement for Tomorrow is planning another trip to the Philippines in 2011. To make a donation, send an e-mail to Safety Harbor fire Capt. Ray Duke at rduke@cityofsafetyharbor.com.
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