While on a 30 day temporary assignment to Kenya with the United Nations Support Office for AMISOM’s peacekeeping mission, KFD’s Tanker Company Lieutenant Joe Lombardo took time last weekend to head out to the Nairobi County Fire Services Head Office to meet the firefighters and learn about their equipment and practices.

Deputy Chief Ngugi and Driver/Operators Kamondo and Maina showed our visiting Lieutenant their apparatus, offices, and crew quarters while answering his questions. He then took them on a virtual tour of the Katonah Fire Department via our website and answered their questions about our operations and procedures.

Lt. Lombardo was invited back to train on a unique piece of apparatus, one of only two or three in Africa, the Metz L56. This aerial has some interesting features apart from its nearly 184 foot height. It has a stowable three person bucket, with a master stream mount and stretcher mount as well as an elevator that holds three adults or six children and can be used for quick rescue operations from as high as a structure’s 18th floor. Deputy Chief Ngugi was kind enough to take almost three hours from his day off to show Lieutenant Lombardo how the aerial worked, including demonstrating it’s incredible height, and elevator capability. Incredibly, to those who know him, he also let Joe have a turn at the controls…

The Nairobi County Fire Services are charged with the enormous task of protecting a city of roughly 4 million people with only three fire stations, approximately 155 firefighters, and less than half a dozen pieces of front line fire apparatus. In spite of these challenges, all of the firefighters that Lt. Lombardo met were welcoming and generous with their time, willing to show him around their facilities and sharing their knowledge and experience. It was a great testament to how strong the brotherhood is even thousands of miles away from home.