Clear Spring’s Response to COVID-19
Clear Spring Fire Rescue continues to take necessary precautions to minimize risk to our personnel and to those who may need our services during the COVID-19 crisis.
Due to the potential spread of the corona virus your Clear Spring Fire Rescue first responders may take extra steps to ensure their safety and yours.
We may limit the number of personnel that enter the home until the situation can be properly assessed and a first responder will place a surgical mask on the patient.
You may also notice we may look different when we arrive on the scene of a medical call.
Pictured here are Clear Spring first responders with different levels of personal protection equipment. Left to right is a responder wearing full Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), gloves and protective coveralls; then a responder with gloves, eye protection, N-95 mask and coveralls; and finally responder with just gloves, N-95 and eye protection. The purpose of these protocols is to keep the professionals providing care safe and to take appropriate steps to keep any virus from spreading.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the limited national supply of N95 masks, Clear Spring Fire Rescue has developed a backup plan to utilize our structural firefighting self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA’s) to protect our personnel from the COVID-19 virus. We still have N95 masks, but depending on how the pandemic progresses, our supply could be depleted to an inadequate level.
Utilizing a self-contained breathing apparatus serves two crucial purposes: 1) An SCBA is the best respiratory protection available for firefighters. This is why they are used in toxic environments such as structure fires. 2) We will not be unnecessarily depleting an already scarce supply of N95 masks which emergency responders and healthcare providers across the nation all need.
Please follow those guidelines that our local, state and federal leaders have implemented in order to reduce the spread.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.