Lifesaving Devices Delivered to York County First Responders

MC’CONNELLS, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) – Volunteer firefighters throughout York County are now better prepared to serve you during an emergency.

Back in 2021 County council approved about 1.4 million dollars of COVID relief funds to purchase much needed medical equipment . Now, those devices are in and ready to help save lives.

Chief Benji Fairfax with McConnells Volunteer Fire Department has been with the station for 23 years.

“The population of the area has almost quadrupled in the last 20 years”, says Fairfax.

With growth, comes the opportunity for more calls of service. That’s why Fairfax says he’s thankful to now have extra tools to hopefully save lives.

Thanks to federal COVID relief funds, York county purchased a dozen Lucas Chest Compression Devices to go to volunteer fire departments throughout York county, plus 125 defibrillators.

“Manual CPR will degrade as you continue on because its physically wearing on the provider. With this device it gives the same compressions every time”, says Foster.

The Lucas Device can be set up and working in less than a minute. Ashton Foster with York County says after seeing an increase of calls during the COVID pandemic, the need for more of these devices was vital.

“The number of unconscious not breathing went up because of the side effects of COVID so with this, say a person did have COVID, we can put one person in a hazard instead of a whole crew” says Foster.

For the AEDS, Foster says the new equipment is compatible with Piedmont EMS, which will save critical time while on scene.

“We can literally take our AED and plug it in to their defibrillator. There’s no lets stop and change out pads, its a plug in place system”, says Foster.

As for Chief Fairfax, he says they haven’t used the new tools yet, but are ready when the times comes.

These new devices came at no cost to tax payers. Included in the cost – is 5 years worth of maintenance as well.

This puts a Lucas Device in each York County Funded volunteer Fire Department, so a grand total of 22 Lucas Devices in the county.

To learn more about the American Rescue Plan and York County, visit https://www.yorkcountygov.com/919/American-Rescue-Plan

 

 

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