Work underway to locate AEDs
By Terry Murry on Friday, October 8th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News Columbia Basin Top Stories
PENDLETON – Pendleton Fire Chief Jim Critchley is observing Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness month by asking other fire chiefs throughout the county help him build a data base that locates public places that have automated external defibrillator devices.
“I would like everybody to help me out and go out and hunt for AEDs so that we can start to work on making this a heart-safe community,” he said.
There is an app from PulsePoint.org where people can register the location of their defibrillators that then populates them on a map for emergency dispatch. Critchley says resident interns from both Pendleton Fire & Ambulance and Umatilla County Fire District No. 1 are among those on a quest to find the defibrillators.
“We’re going to use that staff to go out and kind of do a scavenger hunt and find all of those,” he said. “If you see a firefighter come into the business and you have an AED, just let them know.”
