GREENFIELD — When those on the front lines against the coronavirus clock out from their jobs, thoughts of the virus linger long after quitting time.
Corey Breese, public information officer for the Greenfield Fire Territory, helped transport one potential COVID-19 patient three times within 72 hours last month. The patient interacted with eight people from the department, but it took a full week for them to receive word the patient tested negative for the infectious disease.
“The waiting is the worst part,” Breese said.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
To help put the fire territory’s staff at ease, a central Indiana company — 1-800-BOARDUP — stopped by to fully sanitize both of its fire stations last week. Earlier this year, the company provided an ultrasonic mask-cleaner to the department, allowing firefighters to clean their personal protection equipment better than they had before.
Russ Futrell, director of emergency services for the central Indiana office of 1-800-BOARDUP, has been a firefighter for nearly 30 years. He knows first-hand the types of situations firefighters face, often serving as the initial contact for potentially infected patients.
Futrell’s team is typically called to help secure homes and businesses after they’re damaged by fire or other catastrophes, and to provide victims with toiletries and other items they might need.
To give back to the firefighters who often refer people to his business for victim assistance, Futrell felt called to help out the Greenfield department, which handles all the emergency medical runs in Greenfield and eastern Hancock County.
Providing a team who can professionally sanitize the space using professional products will hopefully provide firefighters with additional peace of mind, he said.
“It didn’t take but 45 minutes to an hour to do each station. We told them if they want us to come back when this is all over to call us,” Futrell said.
Jason Horning, deputy chief of the fire territory, said his employees appreciate the extra help. “Sanitizing our stations gives them the added sense of security of knowing that that’s been taken care of, so it’s less likely they’ll take any germs back home to their families,” said Horning, who has been overseeing daily sanitation efforts performed by staff.
Each day, they use disinfecting wipes and sprays to clean high-touch areas like door handles, light switches and phones, as well as department vehicles. “We’re trying to make sure that we keep the germs down, and so far we’ve had good success. We have a healthy work force and we’re thankful for that,” Horning said.
Breese said the deep-clean sanitation Futrell’s team provided was appreciated staffwide. “I know a lot of us are going to sleep better at night knowing it’s been done,” he said.
Responding to emergency runs donning eye protection, gloves and face masks to protect against a potentially deadly disease is stressful, Breese said. (The staff is thankful to have enough personal protective equipment, despite an initial shortage.)
What’s even more stressful is not knowing which patients might have COVID-19 when responding to runs.
“Even if we don’t know for sure if it’s COVID-related, at least we can let the hospital staff know what kind of symptoms to expect when we bring them in,” Breese said.
Breese credits emergency dispatchers for thoroughly vetting emergency calls, attempting to get as much information as possible to share with first-responders en route.
“Our dispatchers are doing a phenomenal job of asking a ton of questions. Does this person have a fever? Have they been coughing for days? The longer this (pandemic) has gone on, they have done an increasingly great job of readjusting how they ask their questions to get us the info we need,” he said.
Keeping first-responders and health-care workers safe is especially important, Breese said.
“If we do have to lose guys to quarantine, we don’t really have the staffing to do that right now,” he said.
In the meantime, Breese said local first-responders have been supporting one another in their quest to serve the community while staying healthy themselves. “We’re all just trying to pick each other up and maintain a positive attitude about everything,” he said.
