BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – The United States government has helped fund Ukraine’s war effort with tens of billions of dollars in military weaponry since the Russian invasion of February 2022. But others are helping as well – including the Kern County Fire Department, which is now one of about 80 organizations in the U.S. that have donated fire trucks or ambulances to the cause. The cause, in this case, is strictly humanitarian, not military or even defensive: Simply giving aid and transport to the injured and wounded in that two-and-a-half-year-old Eastern European war. At least 77 agencies, public and private, have donated surplus or used emergency vehicles to Ukraine since 2022, according to the volunteer-run charity U.S. Ambulances for Ukraine. The latest to donate is the Kern County Fire Department, which according to that Illinois-based organization, donated a fire truck that had served its time in Kern County, but still has enough juice to serve the civilian population of war-torn Ukraine, where 14,000 people, military and civilian, have been killed, and up to a million wounded. Family calls for justice after 8-year-old boy hit by car dies Private and municipal ambulance companies, fire departments and even individuals have donated – at least eight fire engines, 60 ambulances, and multiple SUVs, wheelchair-accessible buses, and military-style trucks. Jonathan Drucker of the Kern County Fire Department said the agency routinely donates old but operational engines to Mexico and other underserved areas. This donation – of an engine of a similar, but slightly older vintage to this one – fills an even more dire need. “In this case, we were approached by a nonprofit who said, ‘Hey, we have a need in Ukraine for a fire engine to support a fire department out there,’” Drucker said. “And so they’d been asking for a while, and finally we had an engine that became available and we were able to specifically fill a request of this nonprofit and send an engine over in Ukraine where there is a civilian population that need of fire service.” Chris Manson, an Illinois healthcare executive and founder of US Ambulances for Ukraine, posted on social media about the donation. Manson has said the inspiration for US Ambulances for Ukraine was his then 7-year-old daughter, who saw news footage of the war and asked him, “What can we do?” Never miss a story: Make KGET.com your homepage Donated emergency vehicles may go to professional and volunteer fire services in Ukraine, as well as hospitals and medic units that are working along the front lines. Some of those donated vehicles have been destroyed in the war, but they’re replaced with newly deployed donations. It can cost about $9,000 to deliver an emergency vehicle to Ukraine. So donations of cash are appreciated.  Every year, agencies like fire departments and ambulance services age out old equipment. Ukraine is raising its hand, saying, “We’ll take what you’ve got left over.” Kern County has obliged.