GIG HARBOR, Wash. - People across dozens of poor Mexican villages are safer, thanks to the hard work and long hours of some local volunteers.

Video: Gig Harbor group donates firetruck to Mexican village

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It all began more than two years ago over chips and drinks at Jose Lopez's Gig Harbor restaurant, El Pubeblito.

Lopez had just returned from his home town in Jalisco, where he saw four people - including a 6-month-old baby - die in a car accident because the county's lone ambulance couldn't respond in time.

"I felt like, just helpless. Why don't they have another ambulance," he said.

Lopez contacted local police and firefighter friends who organized fundraisers and sent an ambulance to the city of Ayutla last year, but the need was still great.

So they went to work again, this time a surplus 1980s fire truck and a dozen pallets of emergency gear were sent to the town on a McChord Air Force Base jet.

But that was just the beginning. The equipment got hung up in customs for eight hours, forcing the crew to drive the truck four hours, through the rainy night, along washed out roads to their destination.

"And I'm following a chicken truck, getting all the byproducts from the chickens all over the windshield and can't see," said Lopez.

The crew was in town just a few hours, training locals on how to use the truck when a house fire broke out.

"And I'm just thinking, 'what else?' said Lopez.

The makeshift crew put out the fire with nobody hurt. Their first test was a success.

"To me it's mission accomplished," said Lopez.

The volunteers are planning another relief mission this winter.