PLYMOUTH - Help is on the way to the impoverished African nation of Guinea Bissau, courtesy of America’s Hometown.

Two fire engines and an ambulance are en route to the West African country via the neighboring nation of Senegal. The equipment is expected to arrive in Guinea Bissau within a month and will mark the first firefighting equipment the country has seen in decades.

The equipment arrives a year after citizens of the former Portuguese colony watched in frustration as flames destroyed their capitol’s central market. Ravaged by civil war, the country of 15 million is one of the poorest in the world. When the fire brought out in the market last winter, the country could only throw buckets of water at the flames.

Paris-based journalist David Applefield, son of Pinehills residents Jerry and Janet Applefield, learned of the country’s plight while working for the Financial Times of London, and passed on a call for help through his parents.

State Rep. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth, and state Fire Marshal Stephen Coan were first responders, putting out a call for good, used equipment that might be sent oversees.

Applefield ultimately bought two of the vehicles. DeMacedo’s brother, Ollie, of Kingston, purchased the third. Hanson Fire Chief Al Hoyt, a former Plymouth fire captain, donated some fire hose. Local firefighters outfitted the trucks with old hose, picks, axes, ladders and valves as well. Congregation Beth Jacob, meanwhile, donated a collection of old, but serviceable computers.

Guinea Bissau Fire Chief Malam Djauara arrived in Plymouth last October to accept the donations. At the time, Applefield expected to ship the trucks and ambulance out on a container ship delivering other vehicles to Senegal.

The delivery took longer than expected, with Applefield finally picking up most of the $16,000 tab for shipping.

Months after their expected departure, the vehicles finally left their temporary home at the Cedarville fire station last week. They were driven to New Jersey, where they were put aboard a Seabridge Shipping Co. container ship headed for West Africa.

When the ship reaches Dakar, Senegal, in about a month, the vehicles will be driven to neighboring Guinea Bissau.

“Hopefully it will be beneficial to them,” Plymouth fire chief James Pierson said. “Hopefully they will find a way to use it.”

With the trucks on their way overseas, Vinny deMacedo said he will now turn his attention to raising money to send a team of local firefighters to Guinea Bissau to train the new owners in using the equipment.

Local firefighters got the old vehicles working and showed Djauara, the fire chief, how to use the trucks in October. But that was months ago, and even then firefighters here feared more extensive training might be needed

Old Colony Memorial
By Rich Harbert, CNC Newspapers