Taiwan fire and rescue teams training in Auburn

The Endurance Capital of the World got a little more global Monday, when 50 Taiwanese firefighters and rescue workers descended on Auburn for a three-day stint at the American River.The globetrotters came through a program put on by the Industrial Emergency Council, a San Carlos-based company run by retired firefighter James O?Donnell. An old friend of Auburn Fire Chief Mark D?Ambrogi, O?Donnell said it was the unpredictability of the American River that drew the program to Auburn for swift-water rescue training.?They?re interested in swift-water training because they have a lot of water problems in Taipei,? he said Monday.The group of trainees, translators, fire and rescue officials from Taiwan and Auburn-area firefighters spent Monday in classroom training in preparation for today?s exercises at the American River confluence. Instructors, including Placer Consolidated firefighter Bill McKenzie, enjoyed the experience, juggling the challenges of translation. One thing lost on the Taipei men and women ? the trainers? jokes.?It?s very difficult,? McKenzie said. ?You?re having to break things down in to more basic terms and, rather than speaking paragraphs, you?re speaking in sentences so the interpreter can break it down.?Monday?s classes also had some special visitors. Included in the back row were Shiau Ying-Wen, vice commissioner of the Taipei Fire Department and Chen Feng-Yi, vice president of the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China.?From the start, the way they teach and the definitions they give to us, we?ve never had this information before,? said Feng-Yi through an interpreter. ?All the men will be learning quite a bit. It will help them very much.? The American River training is particularly helpful to the 10 members of the Taipei Fire Department because the Taiwanese city also has several rivers, said Ying-Wen, through interpreter Ping-Li Yen. Yen is president of CAFS Unit, Inc., an Arcadia-based company that trains rescue workers.?He can tell the training here, given by the instructors, their knowledge and wisdom is a wider field with more information,? Yen said. ?So they?re learning a lot.?The Journal?s Stephanie Swanburg can be reached at stephanies@goldcountrymedia.com.