After Dan Foley retired as fire marshal at the Galesburg Fire Department last June, he teamed up with the Africa Fire Mission with hopes to teach fire fighting techniques overseas while scoping out a new home in India.
Africa Fire Mission is a faith-based nonprofit that assists with fire-teaching programs in Africa. Foley tells WGIL he and about 20 other firefighters taught several classes to some 250 students in Kenya.
“They want as soon as possible for this to be a native run concept,” he says, “and not just westerners coming in to tell them how to do things.”
Foley says the benefits of the 10 days spent teaching were instantly apparent. The day after demonstrating the “fireman’s carry,” one student used the technique to assist a mother and her infant child out of a slum fire.
“The area I was in was in community education, but then there was fire investigation, we did urban search and rescue and then the fourth one was leadership training,” Foley says.
He adds that a student in the fire investigation class said the country has not had training in that area since the 1960s.
Foley plans to move to India with his wife, Patty, next January.
