SHELDON fire station now has a life-saving defibrillator available for use by the public, thanks to a link-up between fire and ambulance services.
The station, along with Erdington and Bournbrook stations, received the device from West Midlands Ambulance Service.
The defibrillators are outside the stations in locked boxes and when they are needed to restart a person’s heart following a cardiac arrest a code will be given to unlock them by calling ambulance control on 999.
Station Commander Andy Smith, of West Midlands Fire Service, said: “All of our firefighters and many of our staff are trained in how to use AEDs, and all of our frontline response vehicles carry them.
“People often head straight to our stations in an emergency, so they’re a perfect location for defibrillators.”
Andy Jeynes, West Midlands Ambulance Services’ Community Response Manager for Birmingham, said the ambulance service is happy to work in partnership with West Midlands Fire Service to help save lives in the community.
He added: “With every fire engine already carrying a defibrillator, these new deployments mean that a firefighter is never too far from a life-saving device which can only be a good thing for a patient in cardiac arrest.”
