Kathmandu, July 11
German watchmaker and two-time Everest summiteer Michael Kobold’s dream to support the Kathmandu fire brigade with some fire engines is finally launched after repeated postponements over past few years.
Sopranos star Michael Imperioli at Bouddhanath Stupa of Kathmandu on Monday kicked off the expedition which would also involve a motley crew of celebrities drive 10 fire trucks on Nepal’s hair-raising roads for charity.
Imperioli and around two dozen other celebrities — including actor Malcolm McDowell and British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes — will drive 480 kilometres (300 miles) from the India-Nepal border to the capital in November, the AFP reported.
After they will reach Kathmandu, the trucks will be donated to local fire brigade.
Earlier, Kobold had planned to drive one fire engine over the Himalayas with Sopranos actor James Gandolfini. But, Gandolfini died in 2013 and a devastating earthquake hit Nepal two years later, forcing Kobold to delay the project.
“James Gandolfini passed away and then the earthquake struck in 2015 and that’s when all of my friends said we’re going to come with you and deliver this fire truck,” Kobold told AFP.
“Then we had too many people for one fire truck so we just kept getting more fire trucks.”
Kobold hopes the initiative will spur further donations to bolster Nepal’s fire departments.
