Childersburg Fire Dept. receives new equipment and more employees

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - The Childersburg Fire Department has added some much-needed life-saving equipment and more employees. Chief Shane Phillips says the department has also made changes to their staffing models, adding more part-time first responders.

The city council and Mayor Ken Wesson approved using $80,000 from the funds received in the American Rescue Plan to help the department.

They’ve added three LUCAS Chest Compression Systems, three video laryngoscopes, Automated external defibrillators (AEDs), and a transport ventilator.

The LUCAS device is an easy-to-use mechanical chest compression device that helps paramedics deliver high-quality chest compressions to sudden cardiac arrest patients.

Firefighter Tyler Meadows says they’ve already seen how the device helps, especially when the department is short-staffed.

“If all the crew is gone and we only have two ppl that are working, like a medic and a driver, the driver will drive to the hospital,” says Meadows. “If you’re in the back doing IVs this can actually save you a set of hands and do everything you pretty much need.”

Video Laryngoscopy (VL) utilizes video camera technology to visualize airway structures and facilitate endotracheal intubation, essentially allowing us to insert a breathing tube for patients who cannot breathe for themselves. This is the same technology that anesthesiologists use in operating rooms.

It helps when patients are unresponsive and have blocked airwaves.

“We use this,” says Meadows. “Go down in there and suction and see what we’re suctioning. The stomach or the airwaves, one or the other. We can actually block off the stomach from spitting backup stuff so we can get in the airwaves and protect it all costs.”

Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are portable, life-saving devices designed to treat people experiencing sudden cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating. The transport ventilator is a device to help people who cannot breathe on their own, same type of device used in ICUs.

Firefighter Chris Wilkerson adds along with the new equipment, the department has also made changes to the staffing model by adding more first responders.

“We recently lost two full-time employees,” says Wilkerson. “We are actually adopting a new hiring system where we’ve hired nine new part-time employees. Seven of them are paramedics. We’ve got two that are finishing paramedic school.”

Along with the new employees and equipment, the department has also added a medical control director to oversee all emergency medical training and expand medications administered before arriving at the hospital.

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