WILBRAHAM, Mass. - Giving people the emergency tools to save lives is what the Wilbraham Fire Department hopes to accomplish with their hands-only CPR training program.

"After what happened in the NFL, there was a lot of conversations generated in the public about CPR and the importance of it," said Fire Chief Michael Andrews. "So we thought this would be an opportunity to have the public attend a class where they could come, have it explained to them and perform it on mannequins to get more comfortable with it."

Public Information Officer Patrick Farrow said cardiac arrest occurs when a person's heart has stopped beating which also results in an interruption of oxygen to the brain.

"When that happens, that's when CPR comes into place and you're manually pumping that heart for the individual whose heart has stopped," Farrow said. "When you start pumping the heart with CPR, you're now re-oxygenating the brain which will increase the patient's  survival and outcome."

Farrow said proper technique should be 100-120 pumps per minute with about two inches of depth per compression.

The Fire Department said they will be teaching hands-only CPR as opposed to mouth to mouth due to recent studies showing better results when people can focus on the hands only process while they wait for more support from first responders. Andrews said the more people who are trained on site to perform CPR, the more likely they are to save lives when a cardiac arrest occurs.

"Seconds count when there is a cardiac emergency," said Andrews. "Somebody's not breathing, every second counts, so it's important to get help on the way and call 9-1-1, but then performing CPR while you're waiting increases the likelihood of surviving."

The Wilbraham Fire Departments CPR classes will be free to public. People can sign up here or by calling the Wilbraham fire department at 413-596-3122.