Jeff Green | Nov 25, 2015


When 74-year-old Betty Gervais fell and hit her head on a concrete block at the fire pit at her family camp late in the evening after a family gathering on Labour Day Weekend, she was not entirely unlucky.

For one thing she was with family, and her sons Trent and Terry are both trained first responders. In fact Terry is the soon to retire fire chief for the Napanee Fire Service and he knew exactly what to do. As well, the 911 call was quickly answered by the Arden and Henderson fire crews and among the first responders was an Arden firefighter whom Terry knew because he is also a paramedic in Napanee.

“The crew did a great job. They were there so quickly, and when the paramedics arrived from Northbrook after that, everything had been done as it should have been. They took her to Napanee hospital, and then to Kingston for tests the next day,” said Terry Gervais.

Betty suffered a concussion and although it took time for her to recover from the injury, she is now in Florida for the winter, completing her recovery.

“Trent and I, and the rest of our family, wanted to do something for the department because we know how things are in the rural areas. These volunteers are the first on the scene, before EMS (Emergency Services) arrive and they have to do assessments, secure the scene, and provide medical care,” he said.

When he found out that Central Frontenac is putting a new pickup truck equipped with firefighting foam into the small Henderson sub-fire station, he decided that he could provide a medical kit for that truck so the first responders from Henderson will have the same medical gear as those from Arden and the other main Central Frontenac stations. In addition, they added a defibrillator unit to the pack of gear.

With the new truck now having arrived at the Arden station, where it will have the foam unit installed in the coming weeks, Terry and Trent presented the medical kit to the fire crew on Tuesday night, November 24.

“This will bring much-needed added capacity to our Henderson station and will help with medical calls,” said Central Frontenac Fire Chief Bill Young, who was on hand with Deputy Chief Art Cowdy and the Arden fire crew to receive the gift.

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