The Peru Fire Department requested the kits last Tuesday to replenish the county's stockpile.
Now, the fire department has distributed the kits to the Miami County Sheriff's Department and volunteer fire departments stationed around the county to fight the spike in opioid overdoses.
Peru firefighter Nathan Hunt said 17 doses of naloxone nasal spray went to the Amboy Volunteer Fire Department, which has never before carried the drug. Other kits went to the volunteer fire departments in Pipe Creek, Denver and Macy.
"These are volunteer departments with budgets that are next to nothing, so this is a pretty big deal to get this for free," he said.
The extra supply of naloxone comes at a time when Miami County and the state are seeing more and more heroin and opioid overdoses. The state health department recently reported 1,236 people died from drug-related overdoses in 2015. That's a 570 percent increase from 1999.
"It's such a problem here," Hunt said. "Our statistics are pretty darn high. Unfortunately, these kits are much needed. They could mean the difference between life and death."
He said one of the most alarming trends is officers and firefighters responding to multiple overdoses in the same day when a load of heroin arrives in the area.
"It's ironic, because you can always tell when it's a bad batch of heroin," Hunt said. "When you have one overdose, you usually have several in the same day."
A training class on how and when to administer the new batch of naloxone is set for firefighters, law enforcement and emergency responders at 7 p.m. June 8 at the Amboy Fire Station, 216 N. Main St., Amboy.
Hunt said the class also will discuss the steps people can take to protect themselves when responding to an overdose.
He said once responders are properly trained, the naloxone kits will go a long way in saving the lives of county residents in the throes of an overdose.
"We realized we need to have this with us, because we can't always wait for an ambulance from Peru," Hunt said.
Carson Gerber can be reached at 765-854-6739, carson.gerber@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter @carsongerber1.
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