For a $25 – $35 fee and a 4-hour time investment on a Saturday, Oakland Township residents can get excellent American Heart Association Heartsaver CPR/AED/Choking/First Aid training. The courses are delivered by an Oakland Township Paramedics and/or EMT’s. The $25 the course is delivered without the first aid component. The next courses are scheduled for Station #2 at 1888 North Rochester Rd as follows –

• November 18, 2017:  Heartsaver CPR/AED/Choking/First Aid (9am-4:30pm:  Please bring a lunch for 1/2 hr. break)($35)
• December 16, 2017:  Heartsaver CPR/AED/Choking (9am -1pm) (no first aid component)($25)

For registration please email:  PElder@OaklandTownship.org with the following information:          -Your first and last name          -Your Phone # (for any needed communication with you about class)          -Your email address (to send your certification card after class)          -Class date you would like to attend

See complete details on the Township website at his link:

http://www.oaklandtownship.org/township_departments/fire_department/index.php

I attended Heartsaver CPR/AED/Choking today (October 21, 2017) with 7 other residents. This course was presented by Paid-on-Call (POC) Oakland Township Fire Department member Josef Lewandowski (Firefighter / EMT) with assistance of new Paid-on-Call member Kelly Ondersma

POC Kelly Ondersma, Mr. Schomer, POC Josef Lewandowski

Half of the eight course attendees were four members of the Schomer family, a large family including some married children.  Mr. Schomer is considering applying for a Paid-on-Call position.

Part of the Schomer family at CPR training

I took this same course in 2014 at Crittenton. Today I learned that much has changed to improve and simplify CPR since then. Much of this improvement came from the work of the Seattle Fire Department.

Bob Yager

Oakland Township Sentinel just  received this press release from Oakland Township Fire Chief Paul Strelchuk,

 Press Release from Oakland Township Fire Department – 10-19-17

October is Fire Prevention Month. This is a good time to check / review your smoke detectors, escape plans, flammables storage, heat sources, matches, smoking and wiring.

Section 2.11”Fires” of the FEMA manual “Are You Ready?” does a great job of telling you how to do these things.  A pdf of the entire manual is at this link. areyouready_full

A free hard copy of the entire manual can be had by calling FEMA at 1-800-480-2520  and asking for the free manual “Are You Ready?”

Note some of the of the causes of recent serious fires in Oakland Township that caused total losses or very significant property  losses  were:

• Barbeque hot coals place in garage trash the day after the barbeque. The resident thought they were “out”. They were not. (Serious damage – 50%)
• Spontaneous combustion of rags in garage trash used to stain wood trim (total loss)
• Fireworks stored in garage ignited (total loss