PRESS PHOTO JIM MARSH Aided by safety officer Jerry Royer, Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company firefighter Capt. Ryan Basta, refreshes his “hands-only” CPR technique at a recent training/refresher session in basic life support conducted for crew members at the fire company. Western Salisbury Fire Chief Joshua Wells said the fire company makes the basic life support training refresher available to firefighters each year because of the lifesaving potential of the first aid procedure. WSVFC firefighters are dispatched for all cardiac arrest calls in their fire district to supplement dispatch of advanced life support ambulance company crews. Wells said the first four minutes after a witnessed cardiac arrest are critical to a victim's survival. “If blood flow to the brain can be restored within those four minutes,” Wells said, “the victim's chances of recovery are much greater.” Wells said Basta on two occasions made the decision to respond directly to 911 dispatches for “cardiac arrest” in the neighborhood in which he lives, rather than going to the fire department's Swain Station for the department's quick response truck and its medical equipment bags. “Basta is credited by ambulance crews with keeping that critical blood flow going by his CPR efforts until medics arrived,” Wells said.