By Rose Cox
Anchorage Daily News
SHIP CREEK, Alaska — Alison McDaniel never knew how she’d thank the firefighters who saved her Ship Creek business from a devastating fire in 2002.
But this week, she found a way. The owner of Alison’s Relocation Inc. is paying to ship used firefighting equipment to volunteer firefighters in Culiacan, a Mexican town of 700,000 just north of Mazatlan.
In a brief ceremony Monday, two Culiacan firefighters presented McDaniel with a fancy plaque and many kind words.
“We appreciate so much the help we’ve received,” said Fire Chief Arturo Ramirez Arellano through a translator. “We wanted to come here and shake this lady’s hand.”
Equipment is hard to come by in Culiacan, said Paul Sanchez, a retired firefighter who coordinated delivery of the equipment.
As a bilingual member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, Sanchez has trained firefighters at an annual conference in Mexico. When the Nenana Fire Department received a grant to replace its safety gear, it called Sanchez to see whether he could find a home for the old gear. He knew who needed it.
According to Sanchez, the Culiacan community raised enough money so Arellano and fellow firefighter Jorge Tellaeche could come to Alaska and thank McDaniel personally.
The 4,000 pounds of gear probably cost $150,000 when it was purchased a decade or so ago, Sanchez said, but would cost twice that much if bought new today.
“Some of it is stained; you can’t keep that stuff clean,” Sanchez said of the 45 sets of coats, pants, boots, helmets and gloves, and some breathing equipment. “There’s not one item that’s new, but it’s all usable.”
When Sanchez started soliciting bids from local moving companies to ship the goods, McDaniel saw his note, and realized this was her chance to show her appreciation for firefighters. She immediately offered to handle the $1,500 job -- for free.
McDaniel’s livelihood nearly went up in smoke when the building she leased at 1907 Post Road caught fire in 2002. She says Anchorage firefighters saved her financial future by allowing her to retrieve items from her office as soon as that area of the building was deemed safe to enter.
“A year’s worth of our work was on paper,” she said. “Literally, the next day we were still carrying out moves that were scheduled.”
She still tears up when she thinks about the 30 families whose household goods were lost in the fire.
“I don’t think there are words to describe the emotional side of the fire and the losses, not just to myself but to each and every person who had storage in my warehouse at the time. When this fell into my lap, it was an opportunity to give back.”
Arellano and Tallaeche will tour the Seward Fire Department facility today before flying home.
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