{"id":805639,"date":"2020-03-24T18:16:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T00:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=380909"},"modified":"2020-03-24T18:16:26","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T00:16:26","slug":"summit-county-first-responders-talk-fears-precautions-during-covid-19-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-county-first-responders-talk-fears-precautions-during-covid-19-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit County first responders talk fears, precautions during COVID-19 shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A Summit Fire & EMS ambulance pictured March 13.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 While most of the county sits at home working remotely, trying to get outside for a secluded walk or just passing time however they can in quarantine, others are working to keep essential services up and running.<\/p>\n

And while first responders and those in health care continue to work during the COVID-19 outbreak, it\u2019s certainly not business as usual.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre some of our people scared or apprehensive? Absolutely,\u201d Summit Fire & EMS Chief Jeff Berino said. \u201cThis is new for us. Fires you can see, and we know what it\u2019s going to do. This enemy we can\u2019t see. So I\u2019d be lying if I said there wasn\u2019t apprehension.\u201d<\/p>\n

Operationally, Summit Fire has seen a significant reduction in need. Berino said the department\u2019s call load has dropped by as much 80%, citing the departure of tourists, no major winter storms and community members generally trying to avoid nonessential hospital visits.<\/p>\n

Though, the dangers of everyday calls during a pandemic aren\u2019t lost on firefighters and paramedics. And responders are doing everything they can to protect themselves from the new coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it\u2019s a concern of keeping ourselves healthy, and not taking any risks we might have in another situation,\u201d Summit Fire & EMS Capt. Ryan Cole said. \u201cWe\u2019re not coming to the front door with five of us for a patient. We\u2019re coming to the door with one or two of us to assess what\u2019s going on and moving from there. We\u2019re treating it kind of like a hazmat situation, slowing our response so that we\u2019re not exposing people to anything they don\u2019t need to be exposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berino also noted that firefighters and medics likely would be responding to some calls in personal protective equipment \u2014 including masks, glasses, gowns and gloves \u2014 to prevent contracting the disease.<\/p>\n

The worst-case scenario is for a responder to get sick and spread the illness to the rest of the crew.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s about as bad a situation as we can envision,\u201d said Steve Lipsher, the fire district\u2019s public information officer. \u201cIf we got an entire crew contaminated, that could mean four or five firefighters and a couple of medics all knocked out in one swoop. It could be devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district already has closed stations to the public, and officials said extra cleaning measures and social distancing efforts were taking place in-house. So far, the efforts are paying off.<\/p>\n

Berino noted that no one in the district has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. Four are currently awaiting test results, though none have a known exposure to the virus.<\/p>\n

Taking the illness back to the firehouse isn\u2019t the only concern for responders, many of whom fear carrying it back to their spouse or kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking this seriously, so that when we do go home, even if we\u2019re a little stressed, we know we\u2019ve done everything we can to not bring it with us,\u201d Cole said. \u201cWe have to take some steps that we wouldn\u2019t normally take. But right now, staying safe and healthy at work, and not taking anything home to our families is what we\u2019re thinking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things have changed operationally for the county\u2019s law enforcement agencies, as well. Police chiefs also are reporting a drop in call volume with crowds prohibited and the tourist population already dispersed.<\/p>\n

But there are still \u201cdisturbance\u201d calls coming across the radio with some frequency.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s always the incidents within the incident,\u201d Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons said. \u201cWe\u2019re dealing with the stresses of the community. We reduced our person-to-person contacts \u2014 the calls that we\u2019re responding to. The calls that we are responding to all seem to involve drugs and alcohol, domestic violence or mental health issues. To me, that\u2019s a sign of what\u2019s going on in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, law enforcement officers are making adjustments to protect themselves, their colleagues and their families from the virus, including additional medical screenings before officers respond to calls. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nothing like we\u2019ve seen before,\u201d Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office Sgt. Mark Gafari said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a shock at work and outside of work, seeing the news worldwide. \u2026 The job doesn\u2019t change, but we\u2019re adapting to the possibility that someone may have a virus and coordinating responses. It\u2019s an extra layer, but we have to change our approach to make sure others couldn\u2019t potentially be infected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps no profession has been forced further onto the front lines in the fight against the new coronavirus than doctors, nurses and other health care workers.<\/p>\n

Brent Boyer, communications adviser for St. Anthony Summit Medical Center, said the hospital\u2019s patient volume has dropped by about 50% below expected numbers this time of year. Though, as expected, things have been busy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is fairly unprecedented to have an epidemic of this magnitude,\u201d Dr. Marc Doucette said. \u201cThere have been others in the past. But the previous ones have not been as significant in terms of the United States. This is a first for me and for many of us in the health care field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doucette noted that the drop in call load has been made up for with additional meetings and phone calls. Overall, things have gone as well as expected for the hospital, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing all the things that are recommended to limit the spread of infection in general, especially when we go home to our families,\u201d Doucette said. \u201cBut the morale has been good. I have to compliment our physicians, our staff, our nurses and everyone for stepping up their efforts and doing an amazing job over the last few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Summit Fire & EMS ambulance pictured March 13.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 While most of the county sits at home working remotely, trying to get outside for a secluded walk or just passing time however they can in quarantine, others are working to keep essential services up and running. And while first responders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-805639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-18 11:11:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}