Emergency medical equipment stolen from Spokane Valley Fire Rig, now returned | news

SPOKANE VALLEY, WA – Spokane Valley Fire Department officials are investigating a theft case this week after emergency medical equipment was stolen directly from the rig.

Many do not know what a firefighter can do in a day. Of course, they fight fires and save people, but they save lives in other ways too.

“In 2020 the Spokane Valley Fire made 18,700 calls, approximately 80 to 83% of which were medical,” said George Hedebeck, the Spokane Valley Fire Chief. “We take over and do pretty much anything an emergency center would do.”

For this reason, it is essential to have emergency medical equipment on board the rig. But while responding to a cardiac arrest on Tuesday, a bright yellow suitcase was stolen.

“Came back to the rig – our kid’s box was missing,” he said.

With inventories valued at $ 2,000.

“It’s less about the cost of the box and more about being on time to get to a patient,” he said.

The box has equipment that firefighters may need to handle a child’s special air hose and masks, although not necessarily useful for the average person, in times of health crisis this is one of the most important cases on this device.

“If the local locomotive doesn’t have it, the nearest fire department is 4 to 6 minutes away and when you deal with types of calls we do advanced rescue calls and the specialized equipment in the pediatric box – not having that for 6 minutes, could really make the difference between life and death, ”he said.

Well – this is a rare occurrence. Fortunately, the box was returned at the end of the week.