It was supposed to run until 9:00PM but the eight of us were all here for our two-year renewal so we breezed through the subject matter. Learned a couple of new things - if you see someone down and there is an AED, you need to perform CPR for two minutes before you start using the AED. You need to perfuse enough oxygen into the heart muscles so that it can sustain resumed beating. Also, it turns out that a lot of what is being taught was developed in King County. The survival rate there for a cardiac arrest there is about 20%. For the rest of the states it averages around 5-10%. Our local fire fighters go down to King County for regular training.
We also covered infant and child CPR which was glossed over in my last training.
This was basic resuscitation only - the first aid is now a three day class later this spring. I'll be taking that one too.
Walked out of the fire station to find 3/4 inch of new snow on the ground. The pavement was dry when I went in. It is raining here at sea level but snowing heavily in the highlands. Driving to Maple Falls might be put off until Monday or so. I need to take the van and that does poorly in the snow. See how it is tomorrow morning.
Just checked and North Vancouver Island has 2,600 customers out. Power here is the usual onzies - twozies. Equipment failures, cars hitting poles, etc... See how that develops.
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