Local firefighter helps Haiti

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Nate Lasseur is a firefighter for West Palm Beach Fire Rescue. "My parents were missionaries so I spent most summers of my childhood traveling to Haiti."

During one of his trips to Haiti back in 2000, he visited a fire station there.

Nate said, "It opened my eyes to the terrible state of the fire services itself in Haiti. The station was very bad condition. The guys did not have any equipment, they didn't have their own gear."

Nate founded the organization International Firefighters Assistance also called I-F-A.

"Teaching, doing workshops, teaching the community how to take care yourself when you have an emergency. Not just disasters like we see it, where there is 400 thousand people that died, we are talking about personal emergencies as well." 

I-F-A is needed now more than ever, especially after the earthquake. "Two years later there are still people sleeping in tents. There are still a lot of homeless people."

The organization recently donated a used ambulance. "And when we presented this ambulance last month the whole town came. They were so appreciative of this 1989 ambulance that we sent, that we think is garbage here, in fact that ambulance was going to be scrapped, but it found a new life. For us we just stay focused on our task and we try to make a change, every training that we do, every trip that we make, we know that we are making a difference in that country."

International Firefighters Assistance www.IFArelief.org