Compiled by The Bedford Citizen
The Bedford Fire Department and its Paramedics will offer Stop the Bleed training to the community at 7 pm on January 16 in Flint Room at Town Center. Pre-registration is required Please contact Captain Mark Sullivan. (781) 275 – 5266 ext 103 or mailto:[email protected].
Fire Chief David Grunes and Captain Sullivan welcome conversation with residents or businesses interested in further information on Stop the Bleed or the ASHER ~ Active Shooter and Hostile Event Response ~ standard.
Stop the Bleed
Stop the Bleed is both a national awareness campaign and a call to action to train and empower bystanders to help in emergencies. Bedford’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) has already been trained, and the department seeks to include others in their training efforts.
The scope and scale of potential injuries, from automobile crashes through active shooter incidents give new meaning to the term ‘First Aid.’ Time is of the essence in a severe injury, and bystanders could be the difference between life and death for a victim waiting for emergency services to arrive.
The Department recognizes that citizens may be involved in such an event or simply witness a bad car accident, so it is offering the Stop the Bleed program to the community.
Before the Boston Marathon bombing, tourniquets had been removed from the department’s rescue kits. They saved so many lives that day, the regulations now order that they are carried regularly.
Captain Mark Sullivan and FF Dana Park explained each of the department’s current rescue kits carries a pair of them.
Developed by the military, tourniquets are now high-tech affairs – web straps with a spring-loaded mechanism for making it tight. FF Park explained that a tourniquet is intended to be used placed on an arm or leg to stop arterial bleeding, and must be located between the wound and the heart.
Click this link to learn why should you attend a Stop the Bleed course
ASHER – Active Shooter and Hostile Response Standards
A new national standard for Active Shooter and Hostile Event Response (ASHER) was developed in response to several recent national events. Bedford’s Fire and Police Department will be prepared. The standard calls for public safety to partner with local businesses and other vested members of the community to develop plans for risk assessment and preparation, emergency response, and recovery from ASHER events. These types of events are multi-faceted and from the Fire Department’s perspective, they have to plan for the use of fire or explosives as a weapon and the treatment of multiple patients with life-threatening traumatic injuries. The skills used for treatment are similar to skills used today at motor vehicle and industrial accidents, etc… The difference is that these skills now may have to be performed under hostile conditions.