Fort Myers Beach Fire District donates equipment to department in need
Thanks to a donation from the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District, a small department in Ohio will have equipment it desperately needed.
Division Chief Ron Martin attended a conference in Maryland as a member of the Executive Fire Officer Program, a program administered by the National Academy. During the conference in June, executive officers from departments all around the country can network together and make connections, Martin said.
He began to talk to a member of a fire department in Lindsey, Ohio. The department is still dependent on volunteer fire fighters, doesn’t have a large population for its tax base and doesn’t receive much funding. The department needed thermal imaging cameras – a standard for most departments – and auto pulses, and Martin knew just where they could find them.
“We just purchased new thermal imagers, and we were getting ready to surplus those (old ones),” he said. “We were looking for someone that needed them, and they had a significant need.”
Auto pulses are used to do chest compressions when someone is under cardiac arrest; thermal imagers are devices that help fire fighters see through smoke to detect trapped people by their body heat.
The local district made the donation in August.
“It was a chance to help out a community less fortunate than ours,” he said.