Fire gear sent to Ukraine (Checkout the video)

Norwich Fire department participated in this event

Good morning Norwich,

This morning, I have a goodwill story for my readers. As you may know by now, many organizations are helping by donating to the Ukraine relief effort. This relief comes in many forms. This story has a local flavor as it involves our very own Norwich Fire department.

I received this e-mail from firefighter Mathew Rojansky and thought it to be a worthy cause and hope that you will take a moment to read the story and maybe even watch the video.

Here is his story as told by him.

Demo,

I wanted to share some more news about our town that I thought would be of interest to folks on your list. I’m a member of the Norwich Fire Department. Like most departments, we hold on to old PPE (turnout gear) for many years, often long past its official NFPA expiration of 10 years, because we use it for training or other purposes.

Last month ,I got in touch with firefighters in the NY area who have been collecting extra gear from departments across the eastern United States to send to help Ukrainian firefighters and rescuers who are dealing with a horrific situation in their country.

 Norwich Fire Department was able to come up with 10 full sets of our older PPE in good condition, which I drove down to Clifton, NJ, and helped load onto an air freight shipment headed to Poland. As of last week, I have confirmed that the gear made it to Ukraine.

Along with the gear went an American flag with each of the donor departments patches stitched onto it. You can actually see the NFD patch front and center on the flag in this CNN story:https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/03/25/us-firefighters-donating-equipment-to-ukraine-pkg-newday-vpx.cnn

Our Fire Chief, Alex Northern, had this to say about it: “In keeping with our commitment to public service, especially our local contributions during the Pandemic, we saw a global opportunity to help our fellow firefighters who are in need. Once this opportunity presented itself, it was a natural for us to help. This is what first responders do.” 

All packed and ready to head to the distribution center in Clifton, New Jersey.

Volunteers sorting through the donated gear in NJ.

These are the patches of all the fire departments that participated in this relief effort (Norwich Fire on the lower right).

Getting things boxed/packaged properly is key for shipment

Sorting out the boots for a matched set also a must

And now they are ready for shipment overseas, and to Ukraine. It was confirmed that the gear arrived safely.