Bridgeport fire truck heads to Haiti

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (WTNH) -- Years after Haiti's 2010 earthquake, help is still heading that way. In Bridgeport a decommissioned fire truck is traveling there to aid with recovery efforts.

The 1982 Mack fire truck has served Bridgeport well for three decades, but now it's got a new assignment. It's on its way to Haiti. Petionville, Haiti to be exact, which used to be a nice place.

"Petitionville is no longer such a city because there is no such thing as proper roads and proper infrastructure in the area,"said Pierre d'Haiti.

Like so much of Haiti, Petionville was devastated by an earthquake three years ago. It happens to be the hometown of Pierre d'Haiti, founder of Bridgeport-based Haiti Works.

"There are many parts of Petionville that still today have not been touched because of the hard to reach roads," said d'Haiti.

"Hundreds of thousands of people living in despair," said Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch.

Bridgeport adopted Petionville as a sister city. City officials went there, sent aid there, and now the decommissioned fire truck is going there.

Now maybe you're thinking: How much good is a 1982 truck really? It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that a modern truck would have. That's actually not a bad thing because unlike modern trucks that would have a set of electronic valves, there are all manual valves, meaning people in Haiti will be able to maintain the truck.

"We worked very hard to try to get as much funds as we possibly could to make this happen because we want to give hope," said Michelle Lyons, Bridgeport City Council.

The truck is now named "hope" and it won't be going alone. Haiti Works is sending a team to work on improving things besides public safety.

"We have engineers to look at how we can put together a master plan to redevelop that particular city," said d'Haiti.

The truck leaves today and will get there on military transport planes from Massachusetts to South Carolina to Port-au-Prince.