Westport Island Fire Chief Robert Mooney briefed selectmen on the department’s upcoming cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) training at their meeting Monday evening.

The free one-hour training, which is open to island residents, will be offered on any of three evenings (Sept. 14, 15 and 16) at 6 p.m. at the town hall. The fire department has purchased 50 booklets for trainees. No advance registration is needed.

Those attending will be taught the “hands only” type of CPR by Roger Quandt, who is an intermediate level emergency medical technician, the ems medical director for the fire department and a certified EMT and CPR instructor.  Practice CPR mannequins will include adult, child and infant sizes.

Hands-only CPR includes chest compressions but not rescue (mouth-to-mouth) breathing.

“If done correctly, the chest compressions cause air to enter and leave the lungs, so mouth-to-mouth breathing is not needed,” Mooney said in an interview.

Those attending the one-hour class will be taught “how to perform CPR properly and how to change over to another person,” Mooney said.

He added that students are told that once they begin administering CPR to a person, they are obligated to continue it until someone else relieves them or they physically can’t continue it themselves.

The course includes training in the use of an AED, which is a portable electronic device that can automatically determine if a medical emergency is being caused by an abnormal heart rhythm. It diagnoses the problem and then (if needed) shocks the patient’s heart into a normal rhythm. It is simple to use because it talks users through the steps.

Westport Island has two AED devices: one located in the kitchen/meeting room of the town office and the second placed in a metal case in the kitchen of the town hall during those months when the town hall is in use. During months when the town hall is not in use, the AED will be kept by an EMT who works on the island so that it is quickly accessible. The fire department is in the process of applying for a grant to purchase a third AED.

“They are becoming more and more prevalent,” Mooney said. “You can find them now everywhere, even on airlines and in airports.” The devices cost $1,800 each.

Mooney estimates that over the past few years, 60-80 percent of the calls the 18-member volunteer fire department receives are medical in nature. Overall, the department receives approximately 85 calls each year. The town has 714 year-round residents with approximately double that number during the summer.