A can of gas is all that it took.
“You can be in line all day,” said Border Patrol’s Ramey Sector Chief Patrol Agent Ramiro Cerrillo on what residents endure when trying to buy fuel at the few gas stations open in Puerto Rico.
For one family an all-day wait wasn’t an option. Their 3-year son, Jafet, was tethered to a ventilator powered by electricity from a generator and worried how long the fuel would last.
The Acevedo family posted a desperate plea on Facebook for a fuel container and airlift to Florida.
Meanwhile, Chief Cerrillo was heading into Aguadilla to find the mayor, unknown to the family’s plight. Not finding the mayor, he then visited the town’s FEMA distribution center for hurricane victims. One of the psychologists working there knew the family and approached Chief Cerrillo and asked if he could spare a gas can, explaining the circumstances.
Rather than hand over an empty can, Chief Cerrillo went back home and topped off one of his own gas containers and brought it back to the center. The family was contacted and were told not only was the container awaiting them, but one filled with precious gasoline.
The good deed kept the son alive throughout the night and the next day the family flew to Orlando on a commercial flight for medical attention.
In that same spirit of benevolence, the family dropped off the gas container at the distribution center for others to use.