LMR-October_PROOF6

Municipalities
LFCA President Takes Expertise to Haiti
BY CHAD ROBERSON, LFCA PRESIDENT
Louisiana Fire Chief Association
President and St. George Fire
Protection District Assistant Fire
Chief Chad Roberson recently
participated in an assessment of the
Haiti Fire Service. At the request of
the Louisiana National Guard (LANG)
Chief Roberson was part of a 5-person
assessment team that visited with
the Haitian National Police and Fire
Department, city and fire leaders from
the following cities: Port-Au-Prince,
Croix-des-Bouquests, Carrefour,
Petionville, Delmas, and Tabarre over
three days. Chief Roberson was one of
two subject matter experts from the
Louisiana fire service.
The Haitian government established
a partnership with LANG back in
2011 as Haiti was recovering from
the 2010 earthquake as part of the
State Partnership Program. This
program allows National Guard
units from the U.S. to partner with
nations from around the world to
increase capacity in the areas of
homeland security, disaster response
and mitigation, crisis management,
border, port, and aviation security,
and emergency medical response.
The assessment team reported out
with an initial report to the Senior
Defense Official and Defense Attaché’
of the Security Cooperation Office
at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti. The
assessment report will be submitted
to the Ministry of Justice through
the Haitian National Police and Fire
Department. In addition, the report
will be presented to the United States
Southern Command (USSouthCom)
which oversees the Security
Cooperation Office later this month.
Chief Roberson stated “it was an
honor to represent the St. George Fire
Protection District and the Louisiana
Fire Service to assist the Louisiana
National Guard and the Haitian Fire
Service in this assessment.”
Croix-des-Bouquests Fire Department with the Assessment Team.
The Carrefour Fire Department and their new station.
SEE HAITI, PAGE 20
LMR | October 2017 Page 19