The Steinbach Fire Department is donating several sets of decommissioned firefighting gear, balaclavas, gloves and boots to Ukraine.

This idea originated outside our city, and it is gathering momentum across the province.

“One of our members noticed a Facebook post out of the Morden area actually, somebody out of the Morden area is collecting old fire gear to send off to Ukraine,” says Kel Toews, Steinbach’s fire chief.

The fire department has to replace equipment every few years and Toews says they always make sure nothing is wasted.

“We need to replace our coats, our pants, our boots, our gloves, all that, in every 10 years. We generally save it up and send it through an organization called firefighters without borders that sends it to third world countries,” says Toews. “But then we saw this and thought this would be a great place to bring it.”

ptional to be part of it.

“I’ve always known our department is a caring, a giving department,” he says. “It's great to see the reinforcement of that, and it’s good to do the small part that we are doing for this cause.”

Growing support for firefighters in Ukraine

The number of Manitoba fire departments donating used gear, cash and other items that could be useful in Ukraine, is growing.

Darlingford Fire Chief Cal Funk with Yegeniya Tatarenko. (Photo submitted)

After working with Yevgeniya Tatarenko, the organizer for the group Help Ukraine - Morden and Pembina Valley, Darlingford fire chief Cal Funk put out a challenge for other departments to step forward. He says there are opportunities for other sectors to support this effort as well.

"I really hope that more departments can step up,” Funk says. “Just talking to her (Tatarenko), there was a need to move things to Toronto to the airport. So, if trucking companies can step up and haul, even a couple of boxes. Talking to Yevgeniya, there was a need for all that stuff, so it's not just fire department gear, it's the logistics of it afterwards, too."