BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council approved a request from fire districts and city governments across East Baton Rouge Parish to loan automated CPR devices from East Baton Rouge Emergency Medical Services. 

The CPR devices will go to Central Fire Dist. 4, East Baton Rouge Fire Protection districts 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8, along with the city governments in Baker and Zachary. 

Councilman Aaron Moak spoke to the importance of having easy access to the machines.

"It's almost like having a fire extinguisher in a building," he said, adding that he'd eventually like to see one in every commercial business. "I wish we could expand that program," he said. 

The decision was made by Metro Council members during Wednesday night's meeting.