West Point Fire & Rescue gets life saving equipment with help from town council

WEST POINT —West Point Fire & Rescue has a new piece of equipment that could help save lives after purchasing a LUCAS cardiac respiratory assist system using a $15,000 contribution from the Town of West Point.

During Monday’s town council meeting, West Point Fire Chief Tim Martin demonstrated the new device and thanked the council for its help in buying it.

“The council has stepped up and taken public safety and the wellbeing of the community into their hands by helping us do this,” he said.

Martin said the device performs sustained CPR on a person, which is helpful for a first responder because anyone performing CPR for an extended period of time will get tired.

“A person can only do effective CPR for so long, and then it starts getting sloppy,” he said. “This thing can do it for 45 minutes to an hour.”

The device can also be used on a bed or in a sitting position in the event that a person can’t be moved onto the floor, Martin said.

“It brings a lot of positives,” he said.

Martin said the department was recently able to purchase another LUCAS device after receiving a grant from the Cullman County Community Development Commission, so this will allow a device to be kept at each of the town’s two fire stations.

“The units are expensive, but at the same time, if it saves one life, then it’s paid for itself,” he said.

The fire department also goes on mutual aid calls to help out other departments in the county, so it could benefit people outside of West Point, he said.

“We hope we don’t have to use it, but if we do, we hope this will make a difference,” he said.