Lab coats and fighting fires while social distancing are now norm for these firefighters
If you haven’t seen a firefighter in action lately, you might not recognize them.
The long-maintained tradition of firefighters working and living together has undergone major changes in the COVID-19 era.
Capt. Shawn Prather and firefighter/EMT Jasper Stenstrom of Graham Fire & Rescue recently gave The News Tribune a modified tour of fire station 95 on 78th Avenue in the Frederickson area. Only firefighters are now allowed in the station’s living quarters.
Graham Fire has five stations that cover an approximately 80-square-mile area. Crews respond to about 7,000 calls annually. Of those, 75-80% are medical calls. The rest are fires, motor vehicle accidents and rescues.
COVID has changed how they interact with the public and each other.
“It’s had a huge impact on our response on calls,” Prather said.
Gowning up
Emergency medical personnel have long worn equipment and followed procedures to avoid contamination from bodily fluids. The coronavirus has added another level of infection prevention.
Fire personnel now wear reuseable lab coats and respirators on all medical calls.
The lab coats keep possible coronavirus contamination off their uniforms, the men said. It took some getting used to.
“I think it slowed down our response time, but our crews have gotten very fast at putting the gowns on,” Stenstrom said. “They all snap together. We pre-snap them so we can just throw them on over our heads, put our masks on.”
Air-purifying respirators are worn on all calls, except for fires. Fires still require heavy-duty, full face masks.
“It’s very challenging from a communication standpoint, because they’re plastic and they kind of reverberate sound,” Prather said.
People also have a hard time hearing what firefighters are saying.
“So we have to be very deliberate about our communications with each other so that we understand each other and very deliberate about our communications with our customers so that they understand what we’re asking,” Prather said.
The masks also make communication with hospitals from the field difficult. And they’re sweaty and foggy.
The public reaction to the new protocols has changed over the last few months, Prather said.
“Initially, when COVID first kicked off, when we would show up in people’s homes with those air-purifying respirators on, there was a bit of trepidation from them,” Prather said. “Something like, ‘We don’t have COVID. Nobody in here is sick. You can take your masks off.’”
Those reactions faded as masks became routine throughout society.
“As this whole pandemic has evolved and people are more familiar with the masks and why we do it, we’re not getting any push back or concern from citizens when we’re on calls,” Prather said.
Life in the station
The firefighters view their stations as a de facto community center. They like to give tours and show off the equipment they use.
“When COVID started, we had to close everything down, not for just the safety of the citizens but the safety of us,” Stenstrom said. “The fire station is a second home for us. We spend a third of our lives here.”
In their actual homes, the firefighters live as they always have.
“You’re obviously not wearing masks and social distancing,” Stenstrom said.
“But when we come to work, it’s definitely a new challenge for us because we are used to eating together, training together, working out together, and that sort of thing has all stopped since since COVID,” Stenstrom said.
The firefighters work 24-hour shifts. Each new shift requires self-monitoring of COVID symptoms.
“We do a temperature check and a symptom check before we break that threshold to go into the fire station,” Stenstrom said. Another symptom check is conducted 12 hours later.
The closeness during check-in time that usually began each shift has now become a situation where the firefighters try to maintain as much distance from each other as possible while communicating.
“We are now spread out across the kitchen and across our living room area, and all in masks,” Stenstrom said.
“The only time the only time you can really take your mask off is if you’re going to be in a room by yourself with no expectation of somebody else coming in to that room,” Prather said.
In the evening, when not a call, they still use the classic firefighter recliner to watch TV, but separated by six feet.
The firefighters train every day. While, that hasn’t changed, it is more challenging.
While no one wants to get COVID, it’s imperative firefighters don’t get infected. If a firefighter were to test positive, their co-workers would be isolated and unable to work, Prather said. An entire shift could be sent home, leaving a staffing gap.
Wildfires
Graham Fire was pushed beyond its limits during the recent 244th Command wildfire that incinerated five homes and numerous vehicles.
Crews were called in to help from all over the region.
“We had crews as far away as Key Peninsula come on the initial alarm after we deemed that it was getting out of our control,” Stemstrom said.
A total of 60 units from 14 agencies responded over two days.
Masks to prevent COVID infection were worn at briefings and anytime social distancing couldn’t be maintained, he said.
“Even when you’re getting back in the fire engine and you’re driving around,” Stenstrom said. “Even though it’s super hot.”
The precautions were especially important given the various agencies involved, he said.
“Ensuring that everybody stays healthy because all it takes is one person to get somebody sick and take it back to their home department,” Stenstrom said.
On fire lines, crews maintained a six-foot buffer so they didn’t have to wear masks.
Protection
It’s not just the firefighters who have to take precautions, patients do as well. If fire personnel are transporting someone to a hospital, the patient is fitted with a disposable surgical mask.
There’s been no resistance to that from the public, the men said.
Working and living with people who are constantly masked does have its challenges. One of them is just recognizing co-workers.
“Some people have pretty unique masks,” Prather said. But those are only worn in the fire station.
“When we’re on (medical) calls and everybody has their white gown on and their goggles and everything and you have a (respirator) on, then it can be challenging,” Prather said. “Who am I looking at?”
Stenstrom speculates that some things will never go back to pre-COVID practices.
“The fire service is rapidly changing,” he said. “It’s my firm belief that we’ll never get rid of our air purifying respirators. It’s a new level of our personal protective equipment that’s always going to be issued.”
This story was originally published September 20, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
