Airdrie Fire Chief Kevin Weinberger is more than excited to say the Airdrie Fire Department (AFD) will be more prepared when needed thanks to the recent donation from Airdronian philanthropist Tracy Osborne. 

With Osborne’s donation, the Airdrie Fire Department with receive expansion kits to their Crash Kelly mannequins, a birthing simulator, a full-body neonatal simulator, a full-body child simulator, the creation of a high-fidelity hands-on simulation lab, and additional equipment to enhance the current primary care paramedic level of service. 

“When we have some downtime, or when we start setting up our monthly evolutions for training and continuing education, we can utilize all of the simulation lab items to do it on shift in real-time with mannequin type simulation efforts,” says Weinberger. 

Weinberger says it creates that high-fidelity hands-on simulation lab that emphasizes realistic skill development, which means real-life situations. 

Prior to the donation, AFD intermittently sent staff to get the training. Now, AFD will be able to do it in-house for all three Airdrie stations on a continual basis throughout the year. 

“It's absolutely fantastic when things like this happen, it's kind of it's a game-changer for us in the way of, okay, we have a new capital project, we can start procuring these items, and we can make an immediate change once we start getting these items in.” 

Weinberger continued on, “for us on our longer on-scene times, we can provide people in crisis a better experience and hopefully a better outcome whether it's pain relief or utilizing some of these skills. As simple as starting an IV can be life-changing to someone.” 

Weinberger wants to thank Tracy Osborne for the donation and the consideration. He says these things open doors and they have had conversations with the entire medical first responder program administrators, as well as Alberta Health Services and Emergency Medical Service partners, as to what’s best moving forward to provide the greatest impact for their responses as a fire department.