AMBOY, Ill. — Thousands of miles away from the conflict zone, three Ukrainian firefighters visited Amboy in Lee County, Illinois on May 1, as part of a tour across the country.
Roman Kachanov, Oleksii Chernomorchenko and Serhii Bilous are all from Kharkiv, one of the cities hit worst by Russia's war on Ukraine.
Speaking at the Amboy Fire Station, Fire Chief Roman described frightening stories of what firefighting on the front lines is like.
"Secondary shelling took the life of one of our fighters there," he recounted. "We brought him, dragged him to the fire truck, tried to get him to the hospital but he died in the car ... Sasha, who died that day, he didn't have a [military vest] and the shrapnel hit him in the chest."
Their visit to the U.S. is organized by Ukrainian Firefighters in Need, an arm of the nonprofit Polsky Foundation.
The trip is the first of its kind for the foundation, with the goal of giving the firefighters more training, spreading awareness of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the everyday struggles of firefighters, and to encourage communities and fire departments to donate equipment and funds if able.
The organization planned major stops — the firefighters already went to the Fire Department International Conference in Indianapolis, with plans to visit Chicago and Washington, D.C. as well.
The visit to Amboy was special because the firefighters wanted to thank the community for significant donations.
"The whole of Amboy city was very supportive," Ukrainian Firefighters in Need U.S. Coordinator Yana Feyganova said. "They probably donated to our cause, about five full trucks of gear and equipment."
Roman described how the need for gear is dire, as widespread damage has created difficult rescue scenarios.
"It's a big pressure, because you don't know ... you see this whole collapsed building, and you are extracting people, but we're always afraid that we maybe did not find someone," Roman said.
Not only that — Roman added that bombing and active combat means that equipment sometimes has to be abandoned or ends up destroyed.
"This is our main mission. To say to people that this is still going on, we still need help, and also say thank you for the firefighters and the departments which already given us engines, ambulances -- all of this, it's really great," Roman said.
Considering all the challenges and danger, News 8 asked the firefighters what keeps them from giving up.
Head of Kharkiv emergency communications Oleskii took his time to give a poignant response.
"No time to fail," he said. "We must work, work, work because people need help. No words. Nothing. Only job."
"We love it — not because of the money, because of what we're doing," Roman said. "We think first about the people, then we think about ourselves."
More information on donating equipment and funds is available on the Ukrainian Firefighters in Need website.
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