East Franklin Fire Department received a FAST (Firefighter Assistance Search Team) Board through a program where FAST Rescue Solutions reaches out to departments that have lost members to basement fires.
On April 11, 2006 East Franklin Volunteer Fire Department lost 21-year-old Kevin Apuzzio in the line of duty, while trying to save a victim.
"The tragedy that occurred with Kevin Apuzzio on April 11, 2006 is one that we hear over and over in the fire service," Eric Allen, the CEO for Fast Rescue Solutions LLC, said in new release. "It has been a constant and something that we have far too often come to except as part of the job. The FAST Board and FAST Rescue Solutions was created because we knew there had to be a better way to save our own." Allen said when the FAST Board was created it exposed the need for a vastly different standard between Rope Rescue, which is a stable or semi-stable situation where someone needs to be moved from one place to another with minimal impact to them, and Emergency Evacuation, where he situation dictates that we need to leave now and the patient needs to be removed as quickly as possible to medical command.