Buff Clubs Expand Role by Leadership In CPR Training
Stemming at least in part from the drama of the weekly TV show, “Emergency,” in recent years the public’s consciousness has been raised concerning emergency medicine in general, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in particular. Nationwide, there is growing emphasis on the teaching of CPR techniques to the general public. Although EMTs and paramedics within the fire service are to be found in many places, there will always be victims needing CPR but not within immediate reach of such specialists.
Fire buffs are aware of this. Buff clubs have been among the leading citizens’ organizations concerned with training laymen in CPR. In April 1977, a four-hour CPR course was given at the Baltimore City Fire School to members of the local Box 414 Association. About 60 members, wives, and friends attended. This evening session was set up following several months of discussion between the association, the fire department and local physicians. In urging his fellow buffs to attend, Box 414 member Charlie Price said that the instruction “may someday save your life or give you an opportunity to save a heart victim.”
Buffs themselves, of course, are no strangers to such ailments. Newark’s Dr. Arthur Devlin, chosen in 1975 as the International Fire Buff of the year, died during the same week as the Baltimore CPR course—of a heart ailment.
In Wisconsin, four major medical groups have for several months been planning a massive program to train at least one person from every Milwaukee County household in CPR—some 300,000 individuals in all. Civic groups are expected to form a nucleus for getting the students together. Certainly Fire buffs, with their existing relationship to the fire service and their awareness of emergency procedures, can be in the forefront (this happened in Racine, where 11 Fire Bell Club members took CPR training in 1976).
Similar community-wide training had already begun in Seattle, long served by paramedics. There, members of the Seattle Fire Buff Society began receiving CPR training back in 1973 from fire department instructors.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., one of the buffs in the 3-2-1 Fire Association is now a fully trained EMT who gives instruction in both first aid and CPR. Members of the Anne Arundel Alarmers in Maryland have held CPR cards for several years. In Brooklyn, the Red Cross-affiliated 255 Fire Club members were completing CPR training early in 1977. San Francisco’s Phoenix Society plans a CPR training course this year with an instructor from the San Francisco Fire Department.
For a fire department becoming increasingly involved with emergency medical services, working with local buffs can be a good place to start in building a base of community support and participation.
Along with the CPR emphasis, buffs are participating to a growing extent in civilian disaster relief activities. Some of this work was described in these pages a couple of years ago. More recently, meetings have commenced between Red Cross officials and the Box 15 Club of Los Angeles, with a view towards the buffs becoming a disaster survey team. Primary duty of team members is to “locate victims of disaster situations, inform them of the service provided by the Red Cross, and get them in contact with the Red Cross caseworkers. A situation does not have to involve many people to be classified as a disaster—it can be as little as one person who is without shelter, food, clothing, or medical treatment by reason of fire, flood, or earthquake.”
Elsewhere in California, it was announced in August 1977 that the buffs of the Santa Clara Valley Fire Associates have also become Red Cross survey workers, to assist burned-out families at single-family or duplex-residence fires, using materials carried on their canteen. At larger blazes, Red Cross chapter help will be called in by the buffs as needed. The Phoenix Society has been doing similar survey work for years, as have several buff clubs in other states.
