OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Fredonia Fire Department President Julius Leone, left, and First Assistant Chief Kurt Maytum demonstrate the proper CPR technique on a dummy recently purchased by the firefighters to help teach life-saving measures.

The Fredonia Fire Department is looking to recruit a new, crack force of life-saving first responders. They want you to be in it.

Using newly acquired, highly realistic dummies for teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques, along with an automated external defibrillator (AED) trainer, the department plans to offer a series of community classes on how to do CPR and AED.

Julius Leone, president of the department, said 18 adult mannequins and six of children and infants were purchased with the help of a Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation grant. The group’s grant was $9,500 and the department matched the grant.

“The basis for the grant was to make our community more heart safe,” Leone said. “So if there’s a cardiac emergency, the community can respond to that emergency with hopefully CPR and AED so if somebody’s in cardiac arrest, they can start CPR and when our paramedics arrive, they can take it to the next level.”

Leone said the grant covered two things: the equipment for community training, and a full-size mannequin to train paramedics “to the level that they will can administer the appropriate medications and read the right cardiac arrhythmias.” That mannequin has not arrived yet from the manufacturer.

“It’s a do-all mannequin, from intubation to defibrillations, IVs … it’ll allow the paramedics to do everything, in terms of practicing skills, they would do out in the field,” Fredonia Fire Chief Ryan Walker said.

The smaller dummies allow people to practice chest compressions and breathing techniques.

“What drove some of the grant idea is the American Heart Association changed some of the criteria for teaching CPR,” Walker said. “They have to be able to record or see how effective you are with compressions or breaths. Other mannequins did not, these new mannequins have the ability to tell how effective you are.”

The fire chief said one of the conditions of NCCF’s grant was that the fire department had to offer a quarterly CPR class to the community. Leone said the department plans to post dates for the classes within the next 30 days, and it intends to offer both day and evening classes as well as weekend sessions. “Hopefully people will be able to fit one of those in their schedules,” he said.