Fire Department to Offer Free CPR Training

In honor of National CPR Week, the American Heart Association is collaborating with the Riverside Emergency Medical Services Agency to coordinate a county-wide CPR program.

Emergency healthcare providers, such as fire departments, ambulance companies, hospitals and education programs will be going out into the community to teach residents how to save a life with CPR. This service is free to the public and will be held in various locations across Southern California.

With the goal of increasing the number of lifesavers in the community of Murrieta, the Murrieta Fire Department will join these efforts and host free Hands-Only CPR training from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday, June 7, at Murrieta Fire Station No. 2, 40060 California Oaks Road.

MFD CPR instructors will be on hand to demonstrate the basics and proper techniques of Hands-Only CPR, and participants will have the opportunity to practice on mannequins. The training will not result in CPR certification, but you can learn how to save lives in 45 minutes or less!

Cardiac arrests are more common than you think, and they can happen to anyone at any time. Nearly 300,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually and only 32 percent of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander. Failure to act in a cardiac emergency can lead to unnecessary deaths. In fact, less than eight percent of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital survive. On the other hand, effective bystander CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival.

Anyone can learn CPR – and MFD and the American Heart Association believes that everyone should. Sadly, 70 percent of Americans may feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency because they either do not know how to administer CPR or their training has significantly lapsed. This alarming statistic could hit close to home, because home is exactly where 80 percent of cardiac arrests occur. Put very simply: The life you save with CPR is mostly likely to be someone you love.

By using Hands-Only CPR (no mouth-to-mouth required), bystanders can still act to improve the odds of survival, whether they are trained in conventional CPR or not.

Don’t be a bystander in a cardiac emergency. For more information about the free Hands-Only CPR training, contact MFD EMS Coordinator Art Durbin at 951-316-1727 or email adurbin@murrieta.org.

—Submitted by Murrieta Fire Department