Firefighters save man's life after medical emergency

On-call Firefighters saved a man's life after they were alerted to a medical emergency.

Gary Walker, Neil Mack and Lee Broady were at Saffron Walden Fire Station ahead of taking part in a vigil for Ukraine in the town's Jubilee Gardens.

While they were getting ready, a member of the public knocked on the door to ask for their help, today (Thursday 3 March) at 6.06pm.

Crew Manager Gary Walker said: "We were about to leave to attend the vigil when a young woman came running in and said a man had collapsed and was unconscious in a nearby pub.

"We grabbed our defibrillator and casualty care kit and ran to help. The man had been choking; he had gone very pale and was barely breathing.

"Two off-duty soldiers were giving him CPR and we took over, taking it turns between the three of us. We used the defibrillator and inserted a nasal tube to aid his breathing."

They worked on the man, believed to be in his thirties, for about 10 minutes before paramedics arrived and took over.

Crew Manager Walker, who has been a firefighter for 31 years, said: "It was a case of being in the right place at the right time. Our normal drill night on Thursday doesn't start until 7pm, but we were there early to take part the vigil and show our support for Ukraine.

"The paramedics said our intervention kept him alive. It shows the importance of First Aid training - it is absolutely vital."

Could you be an on-call firefighter?

Saffron Walden's firefighters are on-call; they all live or work within 5 minutes of their fire station and attend incidents.

If you live or work within 5 minutes of an on-call fire station, you could be an on-call firefighter too.

Find out more about the role at essex-fire.gov.uk/on-call