Pittsford, N.Y. - A Pittsford couple saw a dream that was two years in the making come true on Friday morning, after the fire truck they bought on eBay to help a struggling village in Gobon was finally shipped to the African nation.
"There's just been all sorts of ways that God has shown us through this adventure," Diann Conquest said.
The couple first got the idea after traveling to Africa in 2009 to visit their daughter and her husband. During the trip a fire heavily damaged a medical warehouse near where their son-in-law Keir works as a doctor.
"I saw kids walking in with buckets of water and I saw kids walking out with boxes that were on fire," Dave Conquest says.
The closest fire station was 350 miles away. Dave says he still doesn't know how the entire building didn't burn down.
"I said if they only had a fire truck, this fire could've been put out in ten minutes instead of 45 minutes and they almost lost it," he recalls.
That's when their mission started. Diann started looking through eBay for fire trucks and after an exhausting search, they finally found one they liked back in April of 2010.
"He kept saying that one wasn't quite right, no they won't like that," Diann recalls.
"I said we don't want that, but when we came across the Mack pumper, I was sold," Dave says.
For $3,175 the Conquests quickly became proud owners of a bright red fire truck that was first brought into commission for the New York City Fire Department more than three decades ago.
"We wanted it to be as universal and as useful as possible," Dave says.
With the help of the community and local fire departments, the couple has collected over $20,000 in donations to help send the truck to Africa.
On Friday, a flat bed truck showed up to take the fire truck to New Jersey where it will be put on a cargo ship and sent across the ocean to Gabon.
"It's just awesome."
