VAN NUYS : Rescue Vehicles Heading South of the Border

If you ask members of the Van Nuys Rotary Club how far they can stretch a dollar, they’ll tell you all the way to Mexico.

Rather than let old fire trucks and ambulances be put out to pasture by Southland cities, which can no longer afford the liability insurance, club members are snatching them up at discounted prices--as low as $1--and giving them new life south of the border.

“We did a four-wheel drive pickup truck which was donated to a doctor in Las Moches so he could get over the hills,” said Jerry Allen, 54, a club member who helps renovate the vehicles at his Van Nuys auto shop. “He couldn’t get back to see the patients during the rainy season.”

Begun several years ago by club member Bob Rice, the Rotary works closely with Rotary clubs in Mexico to determine needs of residents. The Van Nuys members then donate their labor and dollars to purchase and renovate the vehicles before driving them to Mexico.

In some cases, having the vehicles not only adds to rescue and medical services in the Mexican towns, it actually allows town leaders to establish the services.

Such was the case when the club delivered restored hook-and-ladder and water tank fire trucks from the Redding Fire Department to the small town of Las Moches.

“They didn’t have any fire department,” said Marcelo “Mike” Quiroga, 46, a club member who helps coordinate the international effort. “The trucks we brought were used to open the first fire station.”

Current projects range from a street sweeper bought for $1 from the city of Los Angeles and headed for Rosarita Beach to a $7,000 bus that will be used to deliver blind students to a school in Las Moches.

Work on each project--so far there have been about a half-dozen--can take several months. Recently, the carburetor was stolen from one of the vehicles, delaying completion of its renovation by at least a month.

But as long as Southland insurance rates stay high, club members say, there will be plenty more work as cities auction off old rescue vehicles.

“Every time we go, we see more people, we see more needs and we help that way,” said Quiroga.