An AED at the Scarborough Town Hall main entrance. Contributed / Town of Scarborough

The Scarborough Fire Department will begin replacing and installing new automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, in public settings later this month.

The goal is to ensure the lifesaving devices are in good condition and that a person can get to one anywhere in a public setting within three to five minutes of someone suffering cardiac arrest or collapsing.

Having access to an AED within that timeframe is critical, said Kevin Duross, deputy chief of the Scarborough Fire Department.

“Immediate CPR and early defibrillation increases the chances of survival for those who suffer cardiac arrest,” Duross said. “For every minute that passes without defibrillation, the survival rate decreases by about 7 to 10%. After about five minutes, those chances drop drastically.”

The town currently maintains 48 AEDs throughout the town, including at Town Hall, the Public Safety building, the Public Works building and the town’s schools and parks.

The effort will add 10 to 12 new AEDs and replace ones that are approaching the end of their service life, which is about 12 years.

More than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of a hospital annually in the United States, according to the American Heart Association, with over 17% of them occurring in a public location.

“Having access to an AED and being able to deploy it can bridge the gap until emergency medical services arrive to provide more advanced care such as the continuation of CPR and electric therapy, but also the ability to deliver medications that aid in resuscitation,” Duross said. “Survival rates can be as high as 50 to 70% when an AED is used within the first three to five minutes of collapse, compared to less than 10% without early defibrillation.”

The Fire Department and Scarborough Community Services will host a Heartsaver CPR and AED course at the Public Safety Building on Feb. 19. There, attendees can learn how to recognize signs of cardiac arrest, such as unresponsiveness or abnormal breathing, how to access and use an AED, and more.

“They will learn how to provide effective, high-quality CPR that includes learning the proper depth to push on a chest, the proper rate to push at and the proper hand placement,” Duross said. “Students will learn these techniques for both adults and children. … Not only will they learn how to manage cardiac arrest, but will also learn how to respond to and and manage someone who is choking.”

The course is designed for anyone with limited or no medical training who needs a course completion card in CPR and AED use.

For more information on the course, or to preregister, go to bit.ly/4g2OkXi and navigate to the Feb. 19 event.