The Associated Press
GUATEMALA CITY — From rushing women in labor to the hospital to intervening in domestic disputes, Guatemala’s firefighters are filling the gap of the country’s woefully inadequate emergency services.
In Villa Nueva, a community of more than 1 million people south of the capital that is plagued by gangs and has one of the highest rates of violence in the nation, there are only seven firefighters.
The fire department is poorly funded and equipped, and its ambulance often makes several stops, picking up various injured and sick people, like an emergency bus service.
“Unfortunately, we can never do enough,” said Candido Zet, chief of Guatemala’s Volunteer Firefighter Service, which has 3,800 firefighters nationwide.
Most of the firefighters, who earn only US$200 (euro144) a month, have a second job.