COVID-19 ‘a challenge’ to Columbus Fire & EMS with over 30 firefighters in quarantine
The surge of the COVID-19 pandemic has seeped into one of the city’s agencies dedicated to protecting public safety.
Columbus Fire & EMS Chief Sal Scarpa told Columbus Council during Tuesday morning’s meeting that 34 firefighters are in quarantine due to the coronavirus.
The city hasn’t lost coverage and the department’s service hasn’t been diminished because the gaps have been filled with staff working overtime, Scarpa said, “but it is a challenge.”
The department’s website says it has 383 total positions (375 sworn, two civilian and five clerical). The department maintains 14 stations with a coverage area of 220 square miles and responds to over 40,000 requests for emergency services annually.
Scarpa wasn’t available for further details, but Ricky Shores, the department’s marshal and deputy chief, told the Ledger-Enquirer on Tuesday afternoon the number of employees out or work due to COVID-19 has increased to a department-high 36 during the pandemic — and all are in isolation because they are infected with the virus, not because of close contact.
Shore expects 28 of them back to work within seven days, but he also issued a warning.
“If things get worse, we could be having to draw down our services,” he said. “We’re prepared to do that to minimize the effect to the community. … You could bring only so many people off duty.”
Along with social distancing and wearing masks, Shores said, the department’s protocol calls for daily temperature checks, wearing personal protective equipment on every call and treating each patient as if they are COVID positive to lessen the risk of infection. The stations, trucks and equipment are sanitized daily, he said.
“We’re utilizing industry best standards to protect our employees,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is that we’re exposed to the sickest population of our jurisdiction on a regular basis, and we’re having effects from that exposure.”
The only change in the protocol since the surge in the department’s quarantine numbers, Shores said, has been to ban the use of “artificial ventilation systems” such as fans in the dorms.
“We’re trying to find anything we can to give us an indication that would lead to additional exposure,” he said.
Shores said he isn’t aware of any reports stating department employees weren’t following the protocol, “but there’s personal responsibility that each employee has to other employees to make sure they adhere to these requirements.
“Are you going to have occasions where firefighters are not social distancing or having a mask on? I guarantee you that’s happening from time to time. And that’s where supervisors come in and make sure they reiterate, ‘Look, we’re at a greater risk of contracting this contagion because of the nature of what we do.’”
Privacy concerns prevented him from being specific, Shores said, but he confirmed an outbreak at one station contributed to the high number or cases in the past few weeks. The design of older stations makes social distancing more problematic, he said, especially when more than a dozen firefighters are sleeping in one dorm room during a 24-hour shift.
“When they go on a medical call and get exposed to somebody with a high viral load,” he said, “they can catch the virus and bring it back to the station and expose 15 people in a heartbeat.”
Starting the last week of December, department employees have been offered one of the COVID-19 vaccines, Shores said, but it isn’t required.
“It’s a personal decision right now,” he said, “but it’s encouraged.”
Shores didn’t have the number of vaccinated employees available.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 1:06 PM.
