What happens when you yell “Fire!” in a crowded market in the tiny West African country of Guinea Bissau?

The same that would have happened in Plymouth 200 years ago!

Centuries after Ben Franklin organized America’s first fire department, Guinea Bissau still relies on a bucket brigade to fight fires in the 21st century. Incredibly, there is not a single fire truck in the entire country.

That is all about to change with the help of state Rep. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth, and one of his more well-traveled constituents.

Pinehills resident David Applefield is a Paris-based journalist who covers Guinea Bissau and the rest of West Africa for the Financial Times. Applefield recently learned of the poor country’s plight after fire swept through the central market in the port capital of Bissau. The $4 million loss was an enormous blow for a country where the average annual income is less than $1,000.

Applefield mentioned the situation to folks back home and found a receptive ear in deMacedo.

Guinea Bissau, like deMacedo’s Cape Verdean homeland, is a former Portuguese colony. DeMacedo not only speaks the language, his brother, Donaldo, a professor at UMass Boston, traveled to the country several years ago to help start a college (and found himself in the middle of a revolution).

Together, Applefield and deMacedo resolved to help.

DeMacedo put feelers out around the state for any slightly used fire equipment. Applefield used his contact in the international business community to find shipping.

Later this summer, they expect to transport two fire trucks – one still in service in Randolph, the other recently retired by firefighters in Braintree – to Africa via Portugal.

“People understand the significance of poverty when you tell them the entire country doesn’t even have one fire truck,” Applefield said. “It’s amazing to think in 2006 a country on earth doesn’t have a fire truck.”

Guinea Bissau Prime Minister Aristide Gomes issued a worldwide plea for help in assembling a fleet of fire engines after a propane tank explosion started a fire that leveled the Bissau marketplace earlier this year.

Gomes lost his own childhood home to fire two years earlier. His grandmother watched the house burn timber by timber as the fire brigade threw buckets of water at it.

“The alarm sounds in Bissau and the firemen, whose back-salaries have remained unpaid for months due to our depleted treasury and cavernous debt, rush off hopefully in sandals, heaving pots of water at laughing flames. This is our reality. The blaze devastates what’s left,” Gomes wrote in an opinion piece for the Financial Times.

Guinea Bissau, he wrote, has a per capita gross national product of $800 a year and is dependent on The World Bank and the IMF for sustenance.

According to Applefield, Guinea Bissau grows some of the finest cashew nuts in the world and has untapped potential for both off-shore oil production and ecotourism in scores of undeveloped islands. But the country remains one of the poorest in the world.

DeMacedo credits state fire marshal Stephen Coan with playing a pivotal role in the search for help. Coan broadcast his own appeal and got several responses about used trucks.

One promising lead had to be scrapped because Guinea Bissau needs fire trucks that do not need fire hydrants. There are none in the country.

Coan turned to Tim O’Niel of Greenwood Emergency Vehicles. The North Attleboro company sells many of the fire trucks in the region and typically takes used fire trucks in trade. O’Niel found two trucks that don’t need hydrants and offered them to deMacedo and Applefield at trade-in value.

The old fire trucks are surprisingly affordable. One will sell for $2,500. The other could cost as little as $500.

DeMacedo plans to bring both trucks to his Cedarville gas station in Cedarville in the coming weeks so they can be cleaned up and outfitted with Guinea Bissau lettering. Applefield expects to find shipping aboard a cargo ship bound from Fall River or New Bedford for Lisbon. But first, they need to raise $4,000 or so needed to buy the trucks and ready them for service. DeMacedo said donors can contact him directly.

In addition to shipping the trucks, deMacedo and Applefield hope somehow to train members of the Guinea Bissau fire brigade in how to use the equipment. DeMacedo said that could involve sending volunteers to Africa or bringing African firefighters here.

“Wouldn’t it be great if America’s hometown went out and helped this Third World country with something as basic as fire protection,” deMacedo said. “How appropriate for America’s hometown to be the one to assist this country. With our many blessings, it makes sense...My hope is by the end of the summer, these trucks are putting out fires in Guinea Bissau.”

“The day the trucks arrive in the port is going to be a big event,” Applefield said. “The vehicles are going to be a symbol of hope that the rest of the world cares and help is on its way.”

© 2006 Enterprise NewsMedia, LLC All rights reserved.

Old Colony Memorial
By Rich Harbert, MPG Newspapers