How This All Began
In the beginningIt was a Saturday night in the late 1980's when Fort Wayne Firefighter Bryan Peterson was visiting Tijuana with friends. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the downtown area. Bryan, then a high school and EMT student, ran to the scene to assist. Although the victims were not savable, it lead to the introduction to the Rescate Halcones ambulance and rescue group, based in Tijuana. Bryan was invited down to ride along the following weekend, and continued to do so for many years, along with a high school friend, Jeff Latimer.
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Working in MexicoBryan and Jeff traveled to Tijuana on weekends to provide assistance until they each went different ways in different careers. After Bryan moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, he continued to travel to Tijuana during his annual trips back to his home town of San Diego. He spent a weekend working as a now-paramedic for the group, or for the Cruz Roja Tijuana when the Halcones weren't operating.
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"We have to do something"In the summer of 2019, Bryan and fellow FWFD firefighter Jerry Shultz traveled to Tijuana to work as medics for the weekend. It was Jerry's first trip, and both were assigned to the only running ambulance in the fleet. Halfway through the shift, that ambulance suffered a transmission failure and had to be placed out of service. Luckily, the Mexican Red Cross (Cruz Roja) had an extra unit available, but the decision was made that night to find something to replace the aging fleet at Rescate Halcones. Fast forward to September of 2019, when Parkview Whitley Hospital EMS in Columbia City (Indiana) retired an ambulance that was in remarkable condition. We negotiated with the broker to pay the trade-in price and purchased the ambulance. With the tireless help of the Fort Wayne Community, and especially it's Hispanic Community, enough money was raised to cover the purchase, refurb, and delivery costs of Unit RH7. And then we asked..."why not more?" So, we are delivering two more ambulances at the beginning of April, 2020, and have three more waiting to be delivered later this year. All thanks to the kindness of our supporters! |
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Contact us today to speak with a team member, and help us help our colleagues!