The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Department revises protocol for COVID-19 precautions
Social distancing guidelines enacted to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus are important for everyone, especially first responders like the Painesville Township Fire Department.
The department has come out with a revised protocol in order to avoid the risk of contracting infection while remaining operational as an essential public service.
A statement by the township highlighted that “these changes were done not only to limit possible exposure to the crews, but to
limit the crew’s exposure to the public as well. The department’s emergency response capabilities have not changed.”
What has changed is the level of interface the department has, not only with the public but among themselves as well. The stations are currently closed to outside visitors and all departmental meetings and training have been cancelled with the exception of on-shift training. They now limit crew members to work from only one of their three stations.
Expected measures like enhanced cleaning and use of personal protective equipment have been utilized. This is an important
step in a facility where people work extended hours. Painesville Township’s staff work 24 hours onshift at a time.
“We stocked up on disinfectant,” said Fire Chief Frank Huffman. “We knew we were going to be cleaning. Our guys have learned to really be cleaning machines. I’m impressed at how quick they took to it. That’s important, it’s key for us to just keep things clean.”
The department has also assigned an infection control officer. Their role would be to monitor for potential COVID-19 exposure and to report it properly.
“No one from our department has tested positive yet. We’ve had two people who’ve had symptoms, they got COVID tests and they were both negative. That’s one of our biggest concerns, and probably
for every department, is having a contamination spread through your duty crew, because you’ll lose several people.”
The department has also delayed the majority of its routine scheduled fire safety inspections.
“We do annual inspections of businesses, but with so many closed already we decided to put that off,” said Huffman. “We also don’t want to put our people in the businesses that are open at this point. We are starting to pick up this month with more inspection.
“Anytime someone calls us with a complaint we still check that out or if we would notice anything, we would still handle that immediately. As far as routine inspections, we’re letting those go until people get more open and operational.”