Fire chiefs’ association formed for Pacific region

Fire chiefs in the Pacific region have formed an organization that aims to foster and maintain professional fellowship and camaraderie among the fire services between all islands within Micronesia.

The Western Pacific Islands Association of Fire Chiefs was initially formed on June 21 this year. Its officers and board members were elected during the group’s first meeting on July 15 in Guam.

Stanley C. Torres, assistant fire chief for training at Andersen Air Force Base, was named president of the association board. Leecardo Taimanglo, deputy fire chief for Naval Base Guam, was elected vice president.

In an interview with Torres yesterday, he said forming the association has been in the works for about four years as soon as he left the Commonwealth Ports Authority where he was its former fire chief.

“Besides strengthening the relationship of all fire services in Guam and Micronesia, we want to help each other out in areas that we can’t do from our current organizations. Plans have started to raise funds to help out our firefighters and the community. We are also planning to work on getting federal grants to assist in future training programs, such as conferences and workshops for our region,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Additionally, the group’s training committee, which Torres also chairs, will be working with the Guam Community College and Saipan’s Pacific Region ARFF Training Center to get more advanced and specialized training for firefighters within the region.

“As a group, we can do it as a team and best of all the team consists of all the fire chiefs. Imagine this, getting together the chiefs and firefighters into a room for a meeting or conference, you bring in hundreds of years of experiences of all types of fire and emergency incidents or disasters that is shared amongst each other, thus taking the experience to our own departments and making sure our firefighters and most of all the community is safe,” Torres said.

Membership is open to all firefighter ranks and individuals and companies having an interest in the association.

According to Torres, the group’s mission is to cultivate a closer relationship between fire service organizations and the island community; promote safety through research, study, and education; serve as the recognized organization for exchange of ideas and information; and to research, plan, facilitate and execute joint training in furtherance of continuing education among the fire service organizations.

The association, he said, also plans to tie in with the International Association of Fire Chiefs, which is the leader of all Fire Chiefs Associations in the United States.

For its first major undertaking, the newly formed group is planning to co-sponsor the annual Firefighter Muster Competition for Guam’s fire departments in October this year.

Other association officers are Station Chief for Andersen Air Force Base Guam Marvin Tuncap as treasurer; Assistant Fire Chief for Safety at Andersen Air Force Base Paul Phillips for secretary; and Battalion Chief at Guam Fire Department John Wusstig; Fire Chief at Andersen Air Force Base John Thompson; and Assistant Fire Chief for Operations at Naval Base Guam Steve Hagen as board members.