by Mindy Aguon

Guam - It was a good day for the Guam Fire Department and the island of Guam as a donation of $250,000 of equipment was donated from five fire departments in Wisconsin. It was two years ago that talks between Lieutenant Governor Ray Tenorio and Gerald Paulsen first began regarding procuring the equipment.

In a matter of nine months and through the generosity of five Wisconsin fire departments the donations of the fire equipment started pouring in. Paulsen, a former firefighter and the CEO and president of Paulsen Productions, said, "I promised the lieutenant governor that we would help as much as we could, so I got a tour of some of the fire stations from chief Joey San Nicolas and I said, 'We've got to do something about this!'"

Referring to the lack of equipment, Paulsen worked with Dewitt, Matson, GFD and the Office of the lieutenant Governor to get the equipment to Guam. Among the items donated were gurneys, fire hoses and valves and 100 firefighter suits.

In addition to the donations made today Paulsen says he is committed to doubling their next donation with efforts to gather additional equipment from twelve Wisconsin fire departments and hopefully a fire engine truck will arrive in the next shipment, scheduled for November.