By Pamela Cruz, Anna Lee Mraz and Manuel Ortiz – Peninsula 360 Press
With the donation of two fire trucks belonging to the Redwood City Fire Department to the city of Colima, Mexico, the brotherhood between these two cities, which dates back to 1998, was resumed and strengthened.
The event, co-organized by Redwood City International, took place at Redwood City Hall, where the mayors of Redwood City and Colima, which are sister cities, pledged to strengthen ties with the goal of improving the living conditions of their residents.
“Today we are here to renew our brotherhood with the city of Colima. We will be donating two of our fire trucks to Colima. The firefighters arrived on Sunday and have been training with ours all week. And I understand they will also have some fun visits in San Francisco. So, today we renew the relationship, strengthen it and look forward to future visits,” he said. Giselle HaleMayor of Redwood City.
For her part, the mayor of Colima, Margarita Moreno She recalled that both cities had been sister cities since March 1998, however, the relationship had been somewhat lost "and today we have come to reaffirm and endorse that relationship that I am sure will bear great fruit."
"We are very grateful because we are already going with two fire trucks that will be very useful for the families of Colima, in addition to different equipment such as helmets and clothing that they are giving us for the firefighters of Colima, but I think it will be a very good collaboration. Always, when you work as a team, you get more results," he added in an interview with P360P.
Enrique Morales, a member of the Colima Volunteer Fire Department, stressed that the most important thing for them is the reestablished brotherhood and the learning obtained during the training sessions carried out during the week.
"The most important thing for us is the brotherhood that has been reestablished after several years between the city of Redwood City and Colima. Friendship is the main thing, but we also take away lessons," said Morales.
He recalled that, since last Sunday, three firefighters from Colima were able to participate in training on the handling and movement of units, handling of jets, and the extraction of people trapped in vehicles, among others.
He also expressed his gratitude for the donation of fire trucks and equipment.
"We have three emergency response vehicles, and all three were donated approximately 13 years ago by the City of Redwood City," he said.
"Know that in Colima you have brother firefighters and that we will always be grateful for everything that the city of Redwood has done for Colima, because it means saving lives. Even though the firefighters and citizens are here in Redwood City, they are saving lives from here with the donation of equipment."
For his part, Redwood City Fire Chief Ray Iverson thanked the Colima delegation and the volunteer firefighters of this city for their assistance. He noted that the Redwood City fire department has enjoyed the brotherhood and solidarity generated with the Colima firefighters.
“I know our firefighters have enjoyed the camaraderie and relationships we have established and built while working together these past few days. We look forward to building on these relationships now and even more in the future and we look forward to returning to Colima someday with some of our members to enjoy continuing that relationship,” Iverson said.
Elyse Gainor, President of Redwood City International, expressed her enthusiasm for the event and expressed her hope that bilateral learning will grow during the Colima delegation's stay in Redwood City.
"We hope this is the beginning of a bright new chapter in our sister city relationship," he said.
Elmer Rodriguez, the newest member of the Redwood City Council, expressed his excitement about the event and meeting the people from Mexico.
“We are here celebrating our relationship with our sister city Colima, Mexico. We have volunteers, firefighters, the mayor of their city and some of the other leaders here to accept some of our fire trucks that are being rotated in. We are very excited to be able to meet so many good people from Colima and to be able to extend this partnership between our cities,” he said.
For Dani Caballero, a Redwood City firefighter, he recognized the work and enthusiasm of the three elements from Mexico who were in training.
"Three firefighters from Colima have been with us all week and we have had training in cutting cars, breaking and entering, putting out fires, something different every day. We want to be with them to get to know them. They have a lot of stories, a lot of experience and what we want to do is continue the relationship between Redwood City and Colima with some new firefighters who can continue here with them," he said.
It is worth noting that the sister city relationship between Redwood City and Colima was forged in 1998, “and since then it has been a fruitful relationship, we have donated fire trucks, clothing and fire equipment. We have received several other delegations from Colima in the past, Redwood City has also made visits and there was also the inauguration of the new city hall in 1997,” recalled Giselle Hale.
Watch the video of this event:
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