Firefighters Local 1950 provides life saving devices to schools

Johnston Sun Rise ·

By PETE FONTAINE

Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena sat at his desk inside the Executive Chamber last Friday and declared: “I’m very proud of our firefighters. Hopefully, we won’t have to use them, but it’s great and important we now have them.”

Polisena, who remembered his days as a nurse and with the Johnston Fire Department rescue, was speaking about the town’s newest AEDs – Automated External Defibrillators – that were recently purchased and placed in three of the town’s elementary schools.

The defibrillators, which cost a total of $2,500, or approximately $800 each, were purchased by the Johnston Association of Firefighters Local 1950 after a unanimous vote that came via a request from Battalion Chief David Iannuccilli who is in charge of JFD’s Emergency Rescue Service.

“All I did was ask the union (about buying the AEDs) and our guys stepped up to the plate,” Iannuccilli explained. “Now, there are a total of 75 AEDs in town and every school in Johnston has at least one Phillips Heartsafe Automated External Defibrillator.”

Initially, Iannuccilli asked the Local 1950 brotherhood to pay for one AED, but Johnston Firefighters like President Keith Calci, Vice President Jon Pistacchio and Executive Board Chairman John Gasparro knew the value of those machines as well as a program Polisena initiated a few months ago to make Johnston a HEARTsafe town and decided to fund the purchase of three much-needed AEDs.

“Local 1950 is the most charitable union in this state,” Tim McLaughlin, the JFD chief who will soon became the Rhode Island State Fire Marshall, added during last Friday’s meeting. “These men and women don’t just give lip service, they give cash.”

Iannuccilli also noted that even the highly used Johnston Indoor Recreation Center, which only opened last spring, is also equipped with an AED as is all Johnston Fire Department apparatus.

Perhaps no one in Johnston – not even Polisena – was as happy to receive the AEDs than Carla Carello, Lori Autiello and Judy Centracchio, who serve as nurses at the three elementary schools that until Local 1950s purchase were without what they called “necessities to keep our children safe.”

To which Polisena said, “If it saves lives, it’s worth it!”

Carello, who is the nurse at Johnston’s Early Childhood Center, and Autiello, her counterpart at the Graniteville School, said, “We just want to thank the firefighters for buying the AEDs; it’s been a long-time need but now every school has one.”

Centracchio, who is the nurse at Winsor Hill Elementary School, added: “It is imperative to have these AED Defibrillators, for our entire school community at large, especially for those individuals with predisposed cardiac conditions.”

Meanwhile, Local 1950 issued a joint statement, saying: “Chief Iannuccilli approached the union a few months ago and told us that he and Mayor Polisena were working towards making Johnston a HEARTsafe Community. The last requirement was the AEDS that needed to be placed in three schools that had none. We, as a union, thought it was extremely important that every school in town has an AED so we decided to purchase all three.”

HEARTsafe is a program by the American Heart Association whose purpose is to promote survival from sudden cardiac arrest. The goal is to strengthen the pre-hospital chain of survival, also known as the “golden hour” which are the minutes immediately after sudden cardiac arrest. Rapid intervention (CPR) and defibrillation are critical immediately after arrest and offer the greatest chance for survival from a heart attack.