ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - Two Roanoke fire stations are named the 2017 Red Cross Firefighter Heroes.
We sat down with both crews to talk about how CPR saved two people in cardiac arrest.
In March 2016, a Roanoke man's son-in-law put him in the car to drive him to the VA. They only made it a couple of minutes down the road before pulling into Station 11.
The crew hooked up a defibrillator to the victim and the machine advised to shock, but one firefighter noticed a display showing a heart rhythm, so instead of following the machine's orders, he went with what he knew.
"In his condition, more than likely it would have shocked the heart to where it stopped," said Craig Champney, a paramedic and firefighter.
Champney continued CPR until the ambulance arrived at the fire station.
Meanwhile, at Station 6, only a few minutes away, quickly administered CPR also saved a life.
Last December, a call came in for an unresponsive woman at her home.
"Without CPR I don't think anybody is going to be saved that's pulse less and not breathing," explained Capt. Jeff Peay.
Despite all the technology on the trucks these are two instances basic training saved lives.