Posted by By Victoria Anderson June 27, 2025 on Jul 10th 2025

Rockstar rhythms | Ridgefield Fire Department's life-saving CPR wins national award

In an emergency, who you call matters, but luckily for locals in Ridgefield, they have a direct line to the best.

For the third year in a row, the Ridgefield Fire Department has earned the American Heart Association's "Mission: LIfetime EMS Gold Award."

That's good because when an emergency strikes, the clock is ticking, from the moment you call to the moment  help arrives. 

And if you live in Ridgefield, those answering the calls are more than just trained firefighters and EMTs, they are also rockstars.

"Rockstar CPR" uses pacing to help blood circulate and creates communication with those on the ground, the hospital and dispatch.

“We’ve quadrupled our recitation save rate - that is real-life people who go home from the hospital. They were dead on the ground, and they come back," said Ridgefield Fire Chief Rommie Duckworth.

And, numbers like that caught the American Heart Association's eye, as the fire department was awarded again for its life-saving work.

But, the real win for Duckworth is helping put the community at ease.

“They don’t worry about it," he said. "They just know we will be there when they need it."