Residents from the City of Winter Park, Fl, have a reason to celebrate after the Department of Homeland Security lent some assistance in the form of $224,100 as part of the government department’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program. The money will be used by the Winter Park Fire-Rescue Department to purchase new, state-of-the-art cardiac monitor/defibrillators for the department’s existing Advanced Life Support Units.

On most cases when the WBFD s called to an emergency situation, cardiac monitoring is performed by paramedics and sometimes even firemen. Those suffering from sudden heart attacks have a higher chance of surviving thanks to the defibrillator’s use of therapeutic electrical charges. The new monitors will also be used to provide ECG readings, helping medical personnel root out the cause of the heart attack.

The new monitor/defibrillators use the latest in today’s medical technology and are especially useful due to their compact and lightweight design. Durability is also not a problem – something that is a major concern for the fire department since most of the time, they’re called to extreme emergency situations and environments. Each machine features color, scratch-resistant displays that are also water resistant.

Fire Chief Jim White could not be happier with the news, saying that the grant will finally help them replace their 10-year old machines.

In accordance to Winter Park FL’s drive to go green and to continue the city’s commitment to a resolution that has been enacted in 2008 by the City Commission to make Winter Park an environment friendly local government unit, everyone is now being invited to take part in yet another green effort through the recycling of old and unused phone books.

As part of the program, there are now 3 drop-off spots for phone books that are set to be recycled.  The locations include Winter Park FL’s Parks & Recreation Department which is specifically at the City Hall’s second floor, West Wing. The other two drop-off locations include Stations 61 and 62 of the Winter Park Fire-Rescue Department which is at West Canton Avenue and South Lakemont Avenue respectively.

These phone book drop-off centers have been aimed mainly at those residents who are not part of the city’s curbside service. For the more fortunate parts of the city under this service, residents can recycle their phone books easier through it. Just keep in mind the regular recycling day schedules.

For this project, everyone has the Winter Park Fire-Rescue Department (WPFD) and Keep Winter Park Beautiful (KWPB) to thank for. Happy recycling everyone!

Our very own Winter Park FL Fire-Rescue Department Chief, James White, and the rest of the boys in his department brings one home from the recently concluded 2009 Fire Rescue International (FRI) Conference and Exposition held at Dallas, TX with none other than the “Garry Briese IAFC Safety Performance Award” which was cosponsored by Salamander Technologies.

The award is one of 4 awards given by the Safety, Health and Survival Section Awards Program and it is presented only to the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) member to commemorate the individual’s achievement and commitment in the health and safety fields.

What could our beloved Winter Park FL Fire-Rescue department have done again this time to deserve such a prestigious award? Nothing much really. They just somehow manage to design, develop and then implement a safer patient compartment for the country’s ambulances used by firefighters. Dubbed the Ambulance Safety Initiative (ASI), the compartment features a vast improvement in the restraint systems in ambulances that the paramedics and patients use. Overall, thanks to the ASI, paramedics can now safely treat patients thanks to the innovative design of the device.

Just to put things into the right perspective on how difficult it could be to win this award, the IAFC is composed of more than 1.2 million able and witty fire chiefs and emergency responders in the country. And we all thought our guys at the Winter Park FL Fire department had more than enough to take care of, they still managed to squeeze in some valuable time to come up with something totally worthy of everyone’s praise. Oh well, must be just another day at the office for Chief White and his crew.