When the devastating earthquake hit Haiti several weeks ago, support poured in from all over the world — including Kitsap Peninsula. Among those helping locally was Poulsbo-based Targhee Fire Services.

Edward Wright, owner of Targhee, has been a volunteer firefighter with the Poulsbo Fire Department for 12 years. His company builds fire trucks and other fire-fighting equipment. Some friends of his were leaving for Haiti as part of a response party from a Utah hospital, chartering their own jet. They were looking for a variety of equipment, and using his industry connections, Wright was able to secure water purification units at one-third of retail price. The Poulsbo Firefighters Association teamed up with North Kitsap Fire and Rescue and the Port Ludlow fire department to raise about $10,000 for the equipment and shipping to Utah.

“It was a people to people, business to business, a friend who knows a friend, who knows a friend type of effort,” Wright said. “It was amazing. They (the Utah team) put all the supplies together in a couple of days, and were able to do it all through networking. I was blown away.”

It’s not the first time that Wright, who is the president of the Poulsbo Firefighters Association, has been involved with relief efforts. After Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Texas, he was hired by FEMA as part of the relief teams, and he also sometimes joins wildfire response teams.

Wright became a volunteer firefighter in King County when he was 18, was an EMT at 19 and worked as a paid firefighter for two years while going to college. With a major in journalism/communications and a minor in political science, he went on to a related career including working as a communications director for a United Nations NGO and in the communications office of Newt Gingrich — but fire services have always remained a passion.

He founded Targhee Fire Services (www.targheefire.com) 14 years ago in Idaho and moved the company to Poulsbo in 1998. With a shop in Idaho and one in Poulsbo, he has several employees and builds small fire trucks in house. The larger apparatus are custom-designed locally but manufactured in Illinois by Darley, a leading company that’s been in business for many decades. His clients include fire districts of the city of Tacoma, Orcas Island, Skagit and Thurston counties, among others.

Wright also trains firefighters in a variety of courses, both at fire academies and for several fire departments.

As part of his support of the Seattle-based African Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest, Wright became involved in 2008 with efforts to improve the fire response in Zambia. He traveled to the country, meeting President Rupah Banda, and subsequently received support from Congressman Adam Smith to get a project started.

“We try to do a local initiative… We approach projects as partnerships as opposed to building a great-big project (on our own),” he said. The goal is to develop a program the local community can support on its own. “We look at it as philanthropic entrepreneurship,” Wright said.

His goal is to become more involved with that type of work overseas. “Because of the expertise we have, even if we’re a small company, we want to continue to work with developing countries,” he said, “because that’s our passion.”