{"id":2456296,"date":"2020-03-25T08:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T14:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/village-voices-hear-from-andy-fisher-of-roaring-fork-fire-rescue-authority-on-covid-19-response\/"},"modified":"2020-03-25T08:40:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T14:40:00","slug":"village-voices-hear-from-andy-fisher-of-roaring-fork-fire-rescue-authority-on-covid-19-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/village-voices-hear-from-andy-fisher-of-roaring-fork-fire-rescue-authority-on-covid-19-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Village Voices: Hear from Andy Fisher of Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Authority on COVID-19 response"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Andy Fisher stands in front of the Snowmass Roaring Fork Fire station in September 2019. <\/strong>
Maddie Vincent\/Snowmass Sun<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

For this month\u2019s Local Spotlight, the Snowmass Sun sought to speak with a local first responder helping respond to and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. That responder was Andy Fisher, a longtime Snowmass resident and lieutenant paramedic with Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Authority. Here\u2019s what he had to say:<\/p>\n

Snowmass Sun:<\/strong> How long have you been in Snowmass?<\/p>\n

Andy Fisher:<\/strong> I\u2019ve been here for 15 years. I think this is my 16th winter.<\/p>\n

SS: <\/strong>And have you been working at the fire station that long as well?<\/p>\n

AF:<\/strong> I\u2019ve been with the fire station for 9 years. I started at Snowmass Fire and then we merged (to become Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Authority) and I\u2019ve been on Snowmass Ski Patrol since 2006.<\/p>\n

SS:<\/strong> So walk me through what things have been like for you guys at Roaring Fork Fire Rescue over the past few weeks, how you\u2019ve been involved in the COVID-19 mitigation response?<\/p>\n

AF:<\/strong> Yeah it\u2019s been a very crazy two weeks just like it has been for everyone else and the amount of information flowing our way seems to be updated daily, so we\u2019re constantly adapting to federal and state level data and statistics involving COVID-19 and adapting our operation in order to keep us as responders as safe as possible and still provide the high level of service that the community expects.<\/p>\n

The biggest challenge for us has just been staying current. You know every time you come in for a shift, protocols have been updated to reflect new data and our staffing model is constantly changing to keep exposure down. We\u2019re also spreading ourselves out in the station, I\u2019m at a house right now with one other person and we haven\u2019t come within six feet of each other yet. And we\u2019re doing daily checks on all responders working at each station to trend and hopefully rule out potential illness within our staff.<\/p>\n

So everyone\u2019s kind of practicing that social distancing in the district\u2019s three houses and then with regard to our calls, we work closely with dispatch so if dispatch takes a call from a 911-caller, dispatch is going to ask them a series of questions and if their answers meet their COVID-19 protocol, they\u2019ll notify us and that clues us in that we\u2019re going into a potentially infectious situation, so we\u2019re going to slow down a little bit and make sure that we are fully protected in the PPE or the personal protective equipment that we need to stay safe. That\u2019s a gown and N95mask, eye protection and gloves.<\/p>\n

At that point, where we normally respond with a 2-person ambulance crew and maybe more depending on the call, sometimes we send two ambulances to something that sounds serious, now we\u2019re just sending that one person in all of their PPE in and we\u2019re interviewing people through a barrier, whether it\u2019s a door or glass, to ask them a series of questions. If they meet certain criteria, we talk them into self-quarantining in place, to stay home if they\u2019re able to maintain oxygen saturation and have the ability to breathe without supplemental oxygen just due to the local hospitals potentially being maxed out. So us transporting some of these people isn\u2019t really necessarily always the right thing.<\/p>\n

Overall I would say that it\u2019s completely changed the way we assess people, it\u2019s completely changed the way our transport decisions are made and it\u2019s almost like we view every single contact as a potential exposure.<\/p>\n

SS:<\/strong> In the interactions you have had with community members, what is your sense of how the community is reacting to the potential spread of coronavirus here locally?<\/p>\n

AF:<\/strong> Well what we\u2019ve seen for the most part is you know people really taking good practice with social distancing. As I look out the window right now I can see people doing it. But we\u2019ve seen the full gamut of people embracing what\u2019s being asked of them from their community leaders and their state leaders to stay indoors, to limit travel, I mean as I look out the window I don\u2019t see anyone driving down this busy street that usually would be crowded, and then all the way to the other side of the spectrum, where we\u2019ve had members of the public approach us when we\u2019re in our full gowns, our full PPE and masks and goggles and it looks scary. It looks like something out of a movie you would see where responders are fully isolated in all their gear and we\u2019ve had people approach us extremely upset and that\u2019s understandable. But I think the important thing to know is that we have very, very strict protocol that we\u2019re following and it\u2019s set forth by the state and we have chief level officers in our organization that are on the Incident Management Team communicating with the state so it\u2019s not like we\u2019re just making this stuff up. We are following protocol.<\/p>\n

So yeah, we\u2019ve seen kind of both ends of the spectrum with people really abiding and people being really, really scared.<\/p>\n

SS:<\/strong> How have you guys worked to keep calmness and morale and sort of mental wellness up among responders during this uncertain and potentially scary time?<\/p>\n

AF:<\/strong> Yeah, I think the number one thing is we are very much encouraged to when, you know we work 48 hour shifts and then we\u2019re off for 96 hours and when we\u2019re off we\u2019re off. Our leaders are very supportive of us just going home and being home and not being involved, not stressing about what\u2019s going on at work and engaging in the lifestyle, that\u2019s the reason we live here. For me personally, my family is what keeps me sane.<\/p>\n

But then here at work we have a Peer Support Team, we have connections to the Hope Center and most of all we\u2019re just here for each other really on a one-on-one and crew level. The family environment inside of the firehouse is one of the best parts about the fire service.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also kind of cool the way that all of our chiefs are really coming together to support us. They\u2019re very focused on providing the level of service we always have with like an extreme emphasis on keeping staff protected and making sure that the staff is supported in their home life, too. We\u2019re talking about a day care program and they\u2019ve just totally adapted with our time off, you know if you\u2019re sick or you need to be with your family. So the support from the top has been really helpful. In a time when most people are getting laid off, we\u2019re being really supported in an effort to keep us safe so we can keep responding to our community.<\/p>\n

SS:<\/strong> Is there anything else you feel like is important for the Snowmass community or the county community as a whole to understand about this time and how you guys are working to serve them while also protecting yourselves?<\/p>\n

AF:<\/strong> You know we don\u2019t really have much of a social media presence but we\u2019ve decided that we\u2019re going to kind of adopt this #StayHomeForUs hashtag. You know when you see the base of Tiehack look like the Highlands closing day party on a weekend and see people who are kind of not abiding by the social distancing and unknowingly spreading are potentially spreading (coronavirus), it\u2019s putting everyone at risk.<\/p>\n

For me, when I come into work right now it\u2019s totally different. It\u2019s super stressful and if I get exposed at work I could potentially be quarantined for 14 days away from my family. That\u2019s unsettling. And so to see people not participating in the social distancing and showing little regard for community spread, that\u2019s hurtful.<\/p>\n

So the #StayHomeForUs means we\u2019re doing our part, I\u2019m coming here to do my part and serve the community and I think it\u2019s really important that everyone plays the same role. \u2026Let\u2019s just make this happen now so we can move on from it and I think if everyone plays along, we\u2019ll be through this a lot quicker, so yeah I think playing by the rules now more than ever is super important.<\/p>\n

mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andy Fisher stands in front of the Snowmass Roaring Fork Fire station in September 2019. Maddie Vincent\/Snowmass Sun For this month\u2019s Local Spotlight, the Snowmass Sun sought to speak with a local first responder helping respond to and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. That responder was Andy Fisher, a longtime Snowmass resident and lieutenant paramedic […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 08:14:19","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}