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About Baja California

Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North Territory of Baja California. It has an area of 70,113 km2 (27,071 sq mi), or 3.57% of the land mass of Mexico and comprises the northern half of the Baja California peninsula, north of the 28th parallel. The state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by Sonora, the U.S. State of Arizona, and the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez), and on the south by Baja California Sur. Its northern limit is the U.S. state of California.

The state has a population of 2,844,469 (2005 census), and estimated 3,165,776 (June 2009) much more than the sparsely populated Baja California Sur to the south, and similar to San Diego County, California on its north. Over 75% of the population lives in the capital city, Mexicali, in Ensenada, or in Tijuana. Other important cities include San Felipe, Rosarito and Tecate.

Baja California is where it all began, our visit to Tecate in 1999 started us on our path. We began working with the city of Tecate and the Bomberos from around the state. We have been working to bring agencies representing millions of citizens in the State together for more collaborative training and operations. Where borders were distinct and rarely crossed there is now more mutual assistance and development of resources. 

In 2009, we began working with the group Bomberos De San Diego, a group of San Diego Fire firefighters that work in the area doing similar work. We partnered to bring training to Tecate initially and eventually worked in Tijuana Bomberos and were able to organize regional training at both Tecate and Tijuana inviting bomberos from around the area. Today, being one of the largest Cities in Mexico,  we regularly rely on these Bomberos to assist us in our training.

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Mission to Tecate Day 7

on . Posted in Baja California

Every day we are surprised and amazed at how extensive our fire and emergency services family is. We have settled in the city of San Felipe for some R and R and found an establishment that is proud to display hundreds of patches and decals from Police and Fire agencies from around the world. We added Seattle to the collection.

Its 90 degrees and I sit overlooking the Sea of Cortez a beautiful site. Our group including Franco Soliz, our liason in Mexico visited with the San Felipe Bomberos and were treated to an embracing and brotherly reception. We truely are the same. San Felipe is a city of 60000 people covered by one station with 5 FF's on duty each day and a Substation for Mexicali ,a short 135 miles to the north. The other constant is the need for equipment. As we sit and talk to the bomberos we begin to form our plans for the coming year.

Our talks with Ensenada yesterday were very fruitful. They are at least on the surface willing to talk about bringing training to firefighters as a group and attempt to combine their resources and influence to better their jobs and services. Sound familiar?

Finally able to upload I am including some pictures from the training in Tecate and the presentation made to us by the firefighters of tecate to show their appreciation for our efforts the past 7 years.
We leave San Felipe and travel to Tecate for one more day. Friday we enter the US and make contact with several interested firefighters to personally introduce ourselves . On our way back we hope to visit with San diego, CDF in the Coachella valley, Turlock and Lathrop fire departments.

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