PHOTOS: People in all occupations can find a way to give back through missions work, even firefighters. Tim Baker, Alpena Township fire chief, will soon be leaving on a mission trip at the end of October to help train firefighters in Zambia, a country in Africa. Baker has been on three of these trips before through an organization called Africa Fire Mission. He has been on one trip to Malawi and two to Kenya. Baker took his first trip in 2022 when he was the director of public service careers at Lansing Community College.
He heard about the Africa Fire Mission through a trade magazine. On his 2022 trip, Baker went to the fire EMS symposium in Nairobi, Kenya. He also attended the symposium last fall in 2024. โI felt a great passion for doing it,โ he said. โI have a huge background in training, and I wanted to take the skills that Iโve accumulated in my years and take that knowledge across the world.โ Baker is also a United States Air Force veteran who began his firefighting career in 1998 with the U.S. Forest Service in wildfire, assigned to the Gila Hotshots, according to an email from Wesley Richmond, communications coordinator at Africa Fire Mission.
Baker has been a structural firefighter since 2000. Baker said he likes to interact with firefighters in Africa, and get to know them and what kind of skills they have. โItโs not a big difference from the skills of U.S. firefighters,โ he said. โThey just donโt have the same equipment, they make do with what they have, and they are very resourceful.โ โWe take for granted what we have in the U.S.,โ Baker said.
