JAMESTOWN, N.C. — This week 21 firefighters drove more than 1,500 miles from Mexico to get training at Guilford Technical Community College. 

What You Need To Know

  • Guilford Technical Community College is helping to train firefighters from other nations

  • The school is outfitting 21 firefighters from Mexico with donated supplies to help them be better prepared in emergencies

  • They are also training them in standardized techniques they can teach their departments when they return home

The school held an international fire pump operations training designed to provide firefighters guidance on how to perform tasks and help them get supplies they need to be more effective. 

Guilford Tech Fire Academy instructor and Winston-Salem firefighter Luis Olvera is teaching a rural water technique to the inaugural class.

“One of the biggest issues they encounter is a lack of water in their hydrants, so they have to bring water from somewhere else. So what they're practicing here is getting water from a neighboring department,” Olvera said. 

It’s just one of the lessons firefighters have been learning over the last week.  

“They have the issue of how many different departments don't work together. So now we need to come up with a plan of how to have some mutual aid training and everybody be on the same page,” Olvera said.  

Olvera and his brother Gerardo Olvera have been working as firefighters in the Triad for more than a decade. 

For the last nine months they have been helping the firefighter training program Mexico to coordinate a visit after the team reached out requesting more standardized instruction.   

“We want to come training here in Greensboro because we want to be better at work," firefighter and paramedic Magdelena Delgado said.

The program aims to find solutions for issues they have, including lack of supplies.

Guilford Tech and firefighters in nearby countries came together to donate equipment they no longer use. 

“Our gear sometimes we don't use, the gear that they're getting still has integrity,“ Gerardo Olvera said. 

Organizers also said they hope that as participants share their new techniques, the program will touch many communities.

“This is not just for 20 people. It's going to change the culture down there. So it's going to have a huge impact,” Gerardo Olvera said.

And for the brothers, being able to give back like this is another full-circle moment.

“It's very important for me because I'm originally from Mexico. I moved to the States back in 2003, and this is my way to feel like giving back to my country, back to my firefighters in Mexico that protect my families,” Luis Olvera said.

Firefighters from across the state and from other states also attend continuing education classes at Guilford Tech's Emergency Responder Training Center in Jamestown.