Crime & Safety

Portsmouth Earns "HEARTSafe Community" Designation

Town is just the eighth community in Rhode Island to get the distinction.

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Mark Schieldrop, Patch StaffVerified Patch Staff Badge

The Portsmouth Fire Department has been instrumental in ensuring the town has automated external defibrillators throughout the town as well as training locals who live in work in the town in CPR.

Thanks to those efforts, along with other initiatives, the fire department has helped earn the town the exclusive "HEARTSafe Community" designation.

The HEARTSafe Community program is a collaborative effort between the American Heart Association, the Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program and state departments of health.

Portsmouth is just the eighth community in Rhode Island to get the designation.

In Portsmouth, the goal of the program has been to save lives through the presence of a "chain of survival," which has five elements: 

  1. Immediate recognition of emergency and notification of emergency services.
  2. Immediate bystander CPR
  3. Early use of an AED
  4. Rapid response from EMS professionals
  5. Proper post-cardiac arrest care from EMS and local hospitals.
The Fire Department will be acknowledged for the accomplishment at the start of the March 10 Town Council meeting. Firefighter Dominic Lautieri will also be recognized for his work spearheading and managing the program.

Here's a list of all AEDs in Portsmouth:
  1. All public schools
  2. Town Hall
  3. Senior Center
  4. Police Department
  5. Portsmouth Library
  6. Public Works
  7. Water Department
  8. Sandy Point Beach    

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