(WMAZ) – If you eat at Firehouse Subs, the staff will often ask if you’d like to round up your total.
That extra change is used by the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation to purchase equipment for first responders.
On Tuesday, Firehouse Subs presented more than $85,000 worth of gear to four Central Georgia fire departments. The firefighters explained what they received and how it will help save lives.
The Dublin Fire Department received 11 inflatable air bags.
“It’s basically a big jack,” said Capt. Tracy Childers. “It runs off compressed air, the same air that we breathe in our air cylinders as we go in a house.”
The department will use the air bags to move anything from wrecked vehicles to collapsed walls.
“We could use it and stack bags on top of each other to lift up the rear end of a car or move a car off of a victim,” said Childers.
The McRae-Helena Fire Department got a chest compression machine to automatically administer CPR.
“It clips over the patient,” said Chief Jeff Hardin. “This actually comes down and does the chest compressions for you.”
The machine is critical because EMT’s may not be able to get to victims in Telfair County quickly.
