VIDEO: Two off-duty firefighters were in the right place at the right time on Wednesday, helping save a man's life after he went into cardiac arrest while running along John Nolen Drive.
By chance, firefighter spouses Sue Juedes and Chelsea Utzerath took a different route on their day off when they came across the man lying on the ground and several people around him.
"We could see there's a man lying on the sidewalk and we were like, uh-oh," Juedes recalled.
The duo then sprang into action, despite the fact they were in civilian clothes and not on the clock. They found the man was not breathing, which they related to dispatch.
"We figured we ended up doing about four minutes of CPR, but the urgency of the response went up once the dispatcher was able to give that information to our emergency medical team," Juedes, a lieutenant with the Madison Fire Department, said.
WISC-TV CBS 3 Madison
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VIDEO: Thanks to a donation from a local group of philanthropists, the Madison Fire Department is now equipped with a life-saving CPR device known as a LUCAS.
Short for Lund Cardiopulmonary Assist System, LUCAS has now been added to all five of the Madison Fire Department's ladder trucks in order to aid first responders when a person has gone into cardiac arrest.
"There's sometimes human error involved with manual compressions or anything else," Madison Fire Department Chief of Medical Affairs Ché Stedman said. "The device provides consistent manual compressions so the victim is receiving the best kind of compressions they possibly can."
Once a person has gone into cardiac arrest, first responders place the machine's suction cup on the patient's chest. From there, LUCAS can mechanically give the person CPR, making the process more efficient and effective.
WISC-TV CBS 3 Madison
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Officials say one person is in the hospital following an explosion and fire in the town of Newton
Fire officials say they were called to the scene at about 5:15 a.m. to the 9400 block of Newton Road.
Officials say the home caught fire and they called for backup from multiple departments.
While crews are still working to contain a fire in the home’s basement, they say the fire did not spread to other buildings. Officials say the home is a total loss. The state fire marshal has been called to the scene. The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office is expected to provide more details sometime later today.
WBAY-TV ABC 2 Green Bay
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After looking to fill its chief position for nearly two years, the Monroe Fire Department is exploring a new approach to recruiting staff.
Al Rufer, MFD’s interim fire chief, said the department is looking to mix traditional ways of recruiting with new ones. Rufer said he knows of several other southern Wisconsin fire departments facing staffing shortages.
“We said you know we need to do something different,” Rufer said. “We can’t just throw the banner out front anymore and just do the Facebook stuff.”
Madison College’s fire program director Jen Roman said Monroe Fire Dept. is among many other departments trying creative ways to recruit staff.
“Fire departments are in a staffing crisis, particularly rural departments, which rely on a volunteer force,” Roman said. “We know that volunteerism statistically is down over the last two decades... the fire departments are having to do creative things and look elsewhere for volunteer.
WMTV NBC 15 Madison
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