The Daily Times

Packed into a garage at the Friendsville Volunteer Fire Department Thursday night, a group of nearly 30 students begins counting aloud, tapping out each beat on the table in front of them, from one to 30.

By the time they finish, Blount County Rescue Squad (BCRS) Assistant Chief John Yu notices several moving along too quickly. Since they’re not just counting — they’re actually timing CPR compression rates — speed is vital, Yu explains. And if his students are too “hyper” with their counts and breaths?

“You’re DFO,” Yu tells the class. “Done fell out.” His students could very well pass out right next to the victim they’re trying to help, he says.

Thursday marked the fourth meeting of this First Responder course, which began meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Jan. 17. As Friendsville Volunteer Fire Department (FVFD) Public Information Officer (PIO) Steve Hargis explained, the course is typically held at Roane State Community College. But FVFD recently teamed up with BCRS personnel to hold the 60-hour course in Friendsville. And, with people like Yu and BCRS Chief Keith Sartin donating their time as instructors, the students are saving nearly $1,000 each.

A total of 22 students are first-time participants, with three responders undergoing a required re-certification process. The group ranges in age from 17 to 74 and includes both members of the FVFD and BCRS.

“We have four husband and wife pairs in this class and have one grandmother and grandson,” Sartin said. “The grandmother is re-certifying.”

If all FVFD students in the course pass both the state and national registry tests, the department will officially have 22 first responders on its roster.

As Friendsville Fire’s PIO explains, keeping a healthy number of first responders is important for any fire department.

“Ninety percent of all calls that the fire department handles is medical calls where the first responders go and not the firemen,” Hargis said. “And that holds true with Friendsville, Greenback, Townsend and Seymour. They all run first responders.”

Yet firefighters also benefit from housing and training with first responders. As Yu explained, first responders also provide rehabilitation efforts to fire personnel when they’re fighting blazes. They check vitals, make sure firefighters stay hydrated and let them know when it’s safe to return to the fray.

And Friendsville and other local first responders are able to provide paramedics and ambulance personnel with another invaluable service, Hargis added.

“We’re finding out that Rural/Metro is so busy, they’re in overload and people are coming from other areas and it’s hard for them to find these houses off the road, into the woods. We get there and have the patients packaged and ready for transport when they (paramedics) get here.”

As BCRS Chief Sartin put it, first responders are trained to be available and work within that critical first-hour time frame known as “the golden hour.” Yu agreed, adding that a first responder’s job is to get to a patient as quickly as possible and provide emergency care — ideally within the first seven to 10 minutes of the crisis.

“Every minute that you don’t do that the chance of saving that life declines exponentially,” Yu said. “Many times it’s the difference between life and death.”

And first responders are trained on much more than CPR and mannequins. After some 60-plus hours of class time studying emergency rescue, aid and management, each student must spend additional time honing those skills in the field before they can be fully fledged first responders.

For Friendsville Volunteer Firefighters Nathan and Shelly Cantrell, one of the several husband and wife pairs in the class, it will be well worth it. Nathan is also a Blount Special Operations Response Team diver who, by the time spring rolls around, will be looking to add “first responder” to his repertoire.

But Shelly, who wants to continue expanding her emergency field knowledge, felt those in all walks of life would find the course helpful.

“I think everybody should take this class,” Shelly said. “Whether they have anything to do with the medical field or not. I mean (even) if they work in a gas station or work in a restaurant I think everybody should take this class. And the farther we’ve gotten into it the more I’ve learned that — everybody should take this class.”

And, while Friendsville Fire Chief Tom Greene was mainly referring to the Blount County emergency departments when he spoke of the collaborative effort in the community by saying “All the departments work together in this county,” the rest of his statement seems to echo Shelly’s sentiments quite perfectly.

“Greenback, Maryville, Blount County, Alcoa — we’re all a team,” Greene said. “We’re in this together. We’re all going to need each other one of these days.”

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