In rural Gallatin County, where emergency response times can be as long as 30 minutes, residents are learning CPR and installing defibrillators in rural fire stations so they can have life-saving services closer to where they respond.

“Eighty percent of the calls that came from the area were medical calls. They were not fire department calls, they were medical calls,” said Rob Holt, trustee of the Central Valley Fire District.

Holt lives on the outskirts of the district and has noticed that response times are too long.

“For someone with heart problems, that was unacceptable,” says Holt.

So he rallied his neighbors to get CPR certification and raise money to install an AED machine at the Springhill Road Volunteer Fire Department.

“Up to 20,000 residents in the Reese Creek area have undergone certified fire testing by Central Valley Fire,” says Holt.

William Roberts is vice president of the Central Valley Firefighters Association. He helps train people in CPR and says performing CPR before emergency responders arrive is lifesaving.

“If a bystander starts CPR, an AED is available and a shock is delivered, their chance of survival is 39%,” says Roberts.

Roberts says having more residents know how to use the AED and perform CPR will be another tool for first responders.

Holt and Roberts say their goal is to get other rural communities to use these life-saving tools

“It would be great if each of these rural fire departments had a portable AED for the public,” says Holt.

“We want to raise awareness and give people the tools to look after each other,” says Roberts.

The Central Valley Fire District says it offers cardiopulmonary resuscitation training to anyone who wants it.