In a Tuesday afternoon ceremony at the East Alabama fire station in the Fairfax community, Valley Mayor Leonard Riley and representatives of the East Alabama Fire Department thanked officials from John Soules Foods for helping fund the purchase of state of the art lifesaving equipment. The Holmatro Pentheon Series is the new generation jaws of life. Officials said the battery-powered equipment is easier to operate than its forerunner and is fast in extricating someone trapped inside a wrecked vehicle or a burning house. “It’s much faster to use and is a lot stronger than what we have been using,” said East Alabama Fire Chief Kerry Pickard. “We are training everyone on it right now, and we will have it on our front-end ambulance. That’s the one that goes to all the wrecks, and we have a lot of them in the section of I-85 we cover.”