Upcoming Ban on Landclearing Fires – The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA) has announced their intent to disallow landclearing fires (“landclearing fires” are those over 10 feet in diameter that are used to dispose of stumps and other large natural debris after trees are removed) in Kitsap County after September 2009. Although the fire department will be charged with enforcing this rule, PSCAA is the organization implementing it. If you’d like to know more about the change to outdoor burning in Kitsap County, see the PSCAA’s website at http://www.pscleanair.org/actions/outdoorfires/rule_change_2009/ or e-mail your comments to them at: outdoorburningcomments@pscleanair.org.
CPR Classes – With a new group of freshly-trained instructors, we’re ready to resume our CPR training program. Adult, Child & Infant CPR classes will be held at the Paul T. Nichol Headquarters (26642 Miller Bay Rd NE) on Saturday, May 30 from 9:00am until 1:00pm and on Wednesday, June 17 from 6:00 until 10:00pm. Tuition is $20.00 and must be paid in advance to secure the reservation. If not enough students enroll, class may be cancelled and tuition will be returned. For further information, contact us at 297-3619 or e-mail to laboda@nkfr.org.
The Chain of Survival and Your Emergency Medical Services – By learning CPR, you can become part of the “chain of survival” that pulls together as a team to save victims of cardiac arrest. The first link in the chain is early recognition/notification. Someone has to recognize that an emergency is occurring, and call 911. Know the signs and symptoms heart attack and stroke so you can spot them before the condition turns into cardiac arrest. Call fast and don’t delay; we can’t respond until we know there’s a problem. And, remember: cellular phones act like radios with their signal striking the closest tower. Here, where we’re surrounded by water, that tower may be in another county. If you use a cell phone, tell the call receiver that you’re in Kitsap County so you can be quickly transferred to the local 911 center.
The second link in the chain is early CPR. CPR, providing some oxygenated blood to the heart and the brain, serves as a short-term bridge between cardiac arrest and defibrillation. Learn CPR. But even if you haven’t had a class, local 911 call-receivers are trained to coach you through the steps of CPR over the phone.
Early defibrillation is the third and most critical link in the chain. Defibrillation stops the chaotic and ineffective beat that causes many cardiac arrests so the heart can resume a normal and productive rhythm again. Because defibrillation is the link that’s most time-sensitive for successful resuscitation from cardiac arrest, every one of our fire engines and ambulances is equipped with one. As emergency medical technicians, all of our firefighters are trained to use defibrillators.
To get this and other life-saving services to you as quickly as possible, we’ve distributed our most important resources – people – across our response area. Every day, there are at least two firefighter/EMTs staffing our outlying stations (Hansville, South Kingston and Suquamish) and at least two at our Kingston headquarters station. Additionally, the district’s firefighter/paramedic responds from that central location. By positioning our limited resources this way, we can get life-saving resources to the most serious emergencies in a district-wide average of 6:17.
The fourth link in the chain is early advanced care that’s delivered by the medic and his/her team. Less than 1/3 of our emergency medical calls turn out to require the advanced skills of a paramedic. In cardiac arrests, the paramedic can administer drugs that will stabilize the heart following the EMTs successful defibrillation efforts. They also provide advanced airway management through intubation, and rapid transport to the hospital.
To find out more about the chain of survival, contact us at (360) 297-3619.
