BLAENAVON’S iconic Big Pit now has a lifesaving piece of equipment.
Working with the Welsh Ambulance Service, the mining museum has become the first coal mine in the UK to have a Public Access Defibrillator scheme (PADs) fitted underground.
Part of the trip visitors take to Big Pit involves a 90-metre descent down the shaft to see what working conditions for miners were like and it is here the Welsh Ambulance Service has fitted the PADs.
The defibrillator can be used to save the life of anyone suffering a heart attack while at the museum.
Every member of staff at Big Pit underwent four hours of training to use the electric shock equipment.
Following the installation of a PADs on top of Snowdon last year, it was decided to extend this to the museum which attracts almost 160,000 visitors a year.
Welsh Ambulance Service National PADs manager, Gerard Rothwell, said: “These sites save lives. ”
More than 4,000 volunteers across Wales have been trained to man PADs sites, which are installed in places such as railway stations and leisure centres.
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