March 29, 2024

The push of a button

Fontanelle Rescue receives grant to help upgrade equipment

Up-to-date equipment is just one component to fire departments and rescue squads being able to keep those in their communities safe, and Fontanelle Fire and Rescue has two pieces of equipment they’re upgrading to that will help on the calls they’re dispatched to.

Tyson Sickles, a member of Fontanelle’s fire department and rescue squad, says Fontanelle recently took possession of one important device that will help on medical calls particularly. The other is a device they’ll take possession of soon.

The one they’re waiting on is a battery operated cot for their ambulance. It has been partially funded by a $10,000 grant the department has secured from the Empowering Adair County Foundation.

Fontanelle Rescue has seen an increased number of runs over the last couple of years, Sickles reports. He says fire calls seem to be on a decline, possibly due to citizens being responsible about burning only at appropriate times and places. Another factor to the increase in medical calls is that Fontanelle Rescue is the first unit called if Adair County Ambulance’s units are all busy or are on a patient transport to the city.

Due to the increased number of medical calls and the manpower it takes to raise and lower their current cot, Sickles said a battery powered cot has been high on the department’s needs list.

“It’s all battery and hydraulic powered. With the way workman’s comp is going and with insurance claims, this will cut down on back injuries from the lifting of patients,” Sickles said, adding that current procedure requires either two or four people to raise or lower a patient on a cot. “This won’t just help Fontanelle. With us making more trips to Greenfield and the surrounding communities, it’s going to benefit all the other communities also.”

Sickles reports that the ambulance Fontanelle uses as its first due unit is a used rig that was new to Fontanelle about seven or eight years ago. They’ve kept their former unit so they have two available.

Sickles also says the LUCAS Chest Compression Device is a valuable asset at his department’s disposal. That’s the other device the department has upgraded to. They took possession of it about a month ago.

“It does chest compressions for you. The fire chief and I went to a training about a month ago to get trained on the LUCAS device. Now that we have it, it’s his and I’s responsibility to train the members on our department on how to properly use the LUCAS device,” Sickles said. “The big thing about the LUCAS device is doing chest compressions correctly. If you or I were doing CPR, we’d be tired in two to three minutes. With a battery-powered machine, it can run for a long time before a battery ever needs changed.”

The powered cot has been ordered and should arrive in Fontanelle sometime in the next month.