Local firefighters found a fitting alternate meaning of the acronym AED — which officially means automatic external defibrillator, but now also stands for “Amazing Ellen Dittebrandt” for the firefighter (and artist, and athlete) who was a cornerstone of Hood River Fire & EMS and lead CPR instructor who tragically died in August 2014.
The extension of Dittebrandt’s service comes in the “Amazing Ellen” AED program, profiled by Patrick Mulvihill on page A3. In a nutshell, proceeds from CPR classes and online donations pay for placing the AED units in the community where they’re needed most, especially places with high public traffic.
With AED units gaining a higher profile in the community, it’s a good time to think about how to get personally involved in acquiring the life-saving skills of CPR.
If you’re interested in the program, contact Kip Miller, Hood River Fire & EMS volunteer coordinator, at kip@hoodriverfire.com. Sign up for a CPR class, whether you are an individual or business with employees, at www.hrcommunityed.org and select CPR for a list of class dates and times. You can also donate to the program through Community Education’s website. Cost is $45 per person and classes are held at the Hood River Fire Department. The CPR Team will also come to your facility to teach groups of eight or more for easy convenience. Spanish classes are now available.
AED and CPR programs are two more examples of the way paid and volunteer firefighters go beyond their fire and medical response roles in the county and work in outreach programs for the community benefit. Any local fire agency will have someone on hand who can consult about home or business fire safety, as well as ways to prevent or reduce fire danger around the home, a particularly important service in a rural area where forest, grass or wildland fires can be a real threat to the natural environment as well as to structures.
Hood River County is blessed to have agencies that universally cooperate on fire suppression and prevention training and response. Much of it happens via the County Fire Council, made up of representatives of each agency. These districts and departments observed Fire Appreciation Day on Jan. 27 in the usual fashion — caring for their equipment and staying ready — but Westside Fire Marshal Jim Trammell did send along the following statistics and “fun facts” that serve well to remind us of the value or our local firefighters’ service:
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