By Tyler Wright
Fire brigades in the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges have been the beneficiaries of more than 1,195 defibrillators delivered statewide to CFA districts, a part of the rollout of the equipment to every fire truck and operational vehicle.
Selby Fire Brigade Captain Ian Lewis said the brigade was “very happy” to receive extra defibrillators as part of the program.
“They’re not only useful for helping with members of the community in fire incident situations, people can be working hard and it puts stress on even firefighters…there have been occasions where people have collapsed on fire ground, and the fibs have helped,” Mr Lewis said.
“It’s not only helping the public, but it’s also helping firefighters when they need it as well.”
Three defibrillators now on hand for Selby CFA Fire Brigade members; one in each vehicle.
“The defib has largely been on our larger tanker, which we usually use for structural type fire, because it just carries more water, but if we go out to a grass and scrub fire we generally will take the smaller lighter tanker, [which] doesn’t have a defib on it, but that’s where people are likely to keep pulling hoses up and down hills…it makes a lot of sense.
“It’s actually a good thing to have, It’s a little bit of an insurance policy.”
CFA’s Yarra Valley Group Officer Fiona Burns said more broadly, the CFA has seen a wider variety of age groups involved in cardiac events.
“It’s not limited just to the older members of our community… we also have child [defibrillator] pads in most of our vehicles as well, so that if a child was to be involved in a cardiac incident – and that does happen -then the brigades are in a position to be able to use them for intervention with children as well,” Ms Burns said.
“We know defibrillators save lives, and the first few minutes are absolutely vital during first aid intervention, during a cardiac emergency, so the fact that we have those on our vehicles for members of the community and for our own members as well provides the best chance of survival for anyone in an emergency, should we need to provide an intervention.”
One of the CFA’S defibrillators was used on a NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service firefighter during the 2019/20 fire season, with some defibrillators also available to the general public at places including shopping centres.
“I’d encourage everyone to go and undertake a CPR course so that they’re in a position to be able to provide support to someone during the cardiac event,” Ms Burns said.
