Columbia firefighters start carrying medication to prevent deaths from opioid overdoses

UPDATE: Firefighters finished up their training on how to administer the medication today.

They say its a pretty straight procedure.

Assistant Chief, Brad Fraizer, said this a significant step in the right direction for our community. Now, firefighters will not have to wait for ambulance services to respond before administering the medication.

Fraizer also noted the amount of calls firefighters have responded to having to do with overdoses has increased in the past three years.

ORIGINAL STORY: Starting Thursday, Columbia firefighters will start carrying a medication called Naloxone.

Its a drug meant to rapidly reverse the effects of opioid overdoses.

Last year, Columbia firefighters say they were called to 354 poisonings/drug ingestion. However, firefighters did specify not all of those calls were from opioid overdoses.

The United States Department of Health and Human services said each day, on average, 78 people die in the U.S. from opioid overdoses.

Firefighters say the medication has been given to those who are both young and old and has been successful.

If it is administered to an individual who is not suffering from an opioid overdose, they will be fine.

All uniformed employees of the department will be trained on how to properly use it.

ABC17 will be checking in with firefighters over the weeks to see if they have used it yet and have been successful.