Generous community donations from the 2019/20 bushfires will fund more than 400 defibrillators for CFA brigades.
Thanks to the donations, the CFA and Brigades Donations Trust is allocating $1.04m to purchase this important life-saving equipment which improves the safety of both firefighters and community members at incidents.
The new 426 defibrillators will bring CFA’s total to more than 1,700 across the state, ensuring every group vehicle has a defibrillator and every brigade has at least one vehicle with a defibrillator.
CFA Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said it’s important our members are prepared if a cardiac emergency occurs.
“I hope these defibrillators will never have to be used but having them available gives our members and the community the best chance of survival,” CO Heffernan said.
“Defibrillators save lives – it’s that simple. We have seen our members use them in some emergency situations recently and the early intervention has saved their lives.
“Donations from the community have made these additional defibrillators possible, and we are so grateful and humbled by their support.”
In November 2019, a CFA crew was on deployment to the NSW fires when they saved the life of a NSW Rural Fire Service firefighter. Given their remote location at the time, the early use of the CFA defibrillator was vital in saving the firefighter’s life.
A similar incident occurred in February 2021 at Glenlyon where the Spring Hill Captain went into cardiac arrest at a fire. His fellow firefighters saved his life with the defibrillators on their fire trucks. The Captain said he would have died if it wasn’t for the quick actions taken by his team and the defibrillators on scene.
“It is easy to see the need for this life-saving rollout which wouldn’t have been made possible without the generous donations from the community,” CO Heffernan said.
“We are so grateful and humbled by the support and our members are now further protected as a result of these additional defibrillators.”
The rollout of the 426 defibrillators is expected to be complete in early July.