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Fire chief reports lifesaving equipment purchases and outlines radio limits during recent storm
Summary
Fire Chief Robert Perko described recent purchases — a fire prevention vehicle, a Lucas CPR device and AEDs — that helped save a life this spring, and explained that MARCS radio trunking during a storm limited two-way communication with dispatch but that the department used private channels and other redundancies to maintain response.
Chief Robert Perko told the committee that council-approved purchases — including a fire prevention vehicle outfitted with lights and radios, a Lucas CPR machine and additional AEDs — contributed to a successful lifesaving response in the spring. During three simultaneous EMS incidents the department’s early-defibrillation response and use of the Lucas device helped a bicyclist in cardiac arrest regain a shockable rhythm; the patient was discharged from the hospital less than a month later. Perko credited Lieutenant Luke Herbowitz and Captain Doug Robinson for rapid intervention.
"Between the early defibrillation, the CPR machine, and patient care provided by those two gentlemen in our police force, that patient had a successful outcome and was discharged from the hospital less than a month later," Perko said.
Perko also described a communications issue during a recent storm: power fluctuations at MARCS radio towers put the system into site trunking, which allowed field radios to talk to one another but limited two-way communication with dispatch. The department established private channels and an internal emergency operations center and said dispatch and regional partners are working on redundancies to prevent similar interruptions.
Perko said ambulance replacement planning is underway: one ambulance previously approved for replacement remains in the procurement pipeline with delivery timing that has shifted; council previously approved an additional replacement projected for a later year. No specific delivery dates were finalized at the meeting.
What happens next: The fire department will continue equipment procurement and work with dispatch and regional partners to build redundancy into radio and storm response operations.
