First-reponders receive PPE

Emergency personnel with the Police Department, Volunteer Fire Department and Ambulance Department received equipment from Benton County Department of Emergency Management to help protect them from the new coronavirus.

Police Lt. Michael Lisenbee and Fire Chief Jack Wassman said their departments had received masks, gloves, goggles and some gowns.

Some Benton County first-responders received equipment recently to protect them from the new coronavirus.

Michael Waddle, director of the county’s Department of Emergency Management, distributed the personal protective equipment.

They received face shields, N95 masks, surgical masks and gowns. The supplies came from the Strategic National Stockpile the federal government sent to the states, he said.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and the Arkansas Health Department distributed the equipment to each of the 75 counties in the state, Waddle said. The amount each county received was based on population and the number of confirmed covid-19 tests, he said.

The equipment went to fire departments in Pea Ridge, Northeast Benton County (NEBCO), Siloam Springs, Bethel Heights, Centerton, Decatur, and police departments in Pea

Ridge and Centerton, he said.

“Any departments with ambulances is the priority because they are the ones that go inside homes,” Waddle said.

It was the second shipment the county has received from the federal stockpile. Waddle gave supplies last week to fire departments in Rogers, Lowell, Bella Vista and Bentonville.

Gravette Fire Chief Danny Orr said he tried to order some protective equipment but couldn’t because of demand nationally.

“If it wasn’t for these guys coming up with this equipment, we would be hurting,” he said.

Orr said his department has responded to calls about possible covid-19 cases. The department is taking precautions and limits the number of firefighters who go into a home if there are any indicators of the virus. Orr said only one licensed paramedic is sent in the home.

Waddle said dispatchers at the county Central Communications screen calls to determine indicators. Callers are asked if they have had a fever or dry cough, he said.

N95 masks are needed because they are thrown away after being used around a patient that tests positive, Orr said.

Waddle said N95 masks can be sanitized and reused if there hasn’t been any contact with someone with the virus. He said the life of the N95 masks can be extended by wearing a cloth mask over them.