The 71-year-old Naseby man says he would be dead without their quick actions after he had a heart attack in his local Ancient Briton Hotel last week.
"I wouldn't be here talking to you, that's for sure," he said from his Dunedin Hospital bed yesterday.
"Apparently, I was dead. My heart had stopped and they brought me around. It would have been bye, bye bird."
Mr Chandler says his life was saved by locals who used a heart defibrillator recently installed in the hotel.
"I was the first customer. I'm very grateful people knew how to use the machine. It was a great thing for me that they did."
The machine was one of the last items funded by the Maniototo-Wedderburn branch of the Red Cross, before it disbanded last year after 70 years, due to a decline in membership.
Former branch president Lesley Pocknee said yesterday she was thrilled and proud it had proved its worth.
"The whole point of having it was for a situation exactly like this - to save someone's life that otherwise might not have been saved," she said.
"When I heard about it, I went cold and crumbly. It was brilliant news." Mr Chandler said he remembered nothing of the incident.
"Apparently, I was playing bowls on the Thursday night before it happened and I don't even remember that," he said.
"All I know is we popped in for a beer for myself and a wine for my wife, Lynette, and I didn't even get to drink the darned thing.
"There's only 120 people in Naseby, so we usually go to the bottom pub [Royal Hotel] on the Thursday night and the top pub [Ancient Briton Hotel] on the Friday night. I was lucky it was a Friday night, because that's the pub with the defibrillator."
However, the incident would still prove costly, he said.
"I've promised to go and see the boys when I get out and I might have to shout them a drink or two."
Senior firefighter Paul Hart, of the Naseby Volunteer Fire Service, said the defibrillator had been a lifesaver.
"When we got there, the locals already had it out. It was a real team effort. He would have been dead for a good 15 minutes. He was a very lucky boy.
"He's told us he's going to buy us all a few beers when he gets back."
