MD Fire Academy Takes COVID-19 Precautions to Keep Recruits Healthy

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When Chase Sherrard completed field training ride-alongs for the Frederick County fire academy in February, the novel coronavirus was far from the major global threat it has become when his class graduated last week.

“Things are a lot different now than when we were doing ride-alongs, especially on [medical/sick person] calls,” the probationary firefighter said. “Before we even go in to the residence, we’re at the door asking, ‘Do you have a fever? Do you have a cough?’ — That sort of thing. So it’s definitely a different procedure than most other calls we run.”

As a newly-graduated probationary firefighter, Sherrard is currently relegated to an observational role on what the fire division refers to as “person under investigation” or PUI calls involving individuals suspected of having COVID-19. But he wants to be sure he is ready when he completes his final testing to be officially appointed staff at his station, Fire Station 31 in the 5500 block of New Design Road. If he passes the test, Sherrard will be called on to help handle PUI calls beginning May 26.

Given his first week on the job, the new firefighter will likely have plenty of observational experience to guide him when that day comes.

“Actually on my first shift, we ran two PUIs, people who potentially have COVID-19,” Sherrard said. “The day we graduated the academy we got briefed on the procedure to handle a potential COVID patient, and on that first shift, I got to see that first hand, it was my second call, as a matter of fact.”

Sherrard’s supervisors and commanding officers are also invested in keeping both new and more experienced firefighters safe and healthy during the pandemic. Lt. Mike Webb, one of Station 31’s commanding officers for career fire personnel, said that, aside from ensuring the public’s safety, his highest priority is making sure his crew members go home safe and stay healthy.

The closest thing Webb can recall that was anything like the current crisis was the fear caused by the Ebola virus outbreak from 2014 to 2016.

“There’s a saying in the fire service, that goes, when you arrive on a house fire and all you can see is smoke with no fire, we say treat it as a basement fire until you can prove it otherwise,” Webb said. “And I’ve kind of instructed my staff to do the same with a potential PUI call; it’s a PUI call until determined otherwise, because the list of signs and symptom is constantly evolving.”

Meanwhile, the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services has approximately 50 recruits in two additional academy classes still in training. Recruit Class 27 is slated to graduate July 31 and Recruit Class 28 on Sept. 25, said Battalion Chief Lenne Stolberg, who runs the academy.

Realizing the risk posed to academies training during the pandemic — a class of 47 Montgomery County fire recruits and seven instructors were placed in quarantine after a recruit tested positive for the novel coronavirus April 10 — fire and rescue command staff carefully weighed the risks against the benefit of continuing training for RC 27 and RC 28, Stolberg said. The bottom line ended up being a concern that the outbreak could take a turn for the worse, creating an ever higher demand for trained professional first responders.

“Training these recruits and getting them into the field was mission critical for us. If the COVID situation was to escalate, the more people we can get out there, the more likely we could provide a better service to the public,” Stolberg said, adding that other factors also played a role, including the fact that RC 26 was already nearing graduation and both follow-up classes were well underway by the time the pandemic began.

But the decision to move forward with training did not come without the fire service taking numerous precautions to minimize the risk of infection and keep recruits and instructors healthy, Stolberg pointed out.

The training facility is essentially closed off to outside agencies and anyone other than personnel essential to provide training who have been cleared ahead of time and pre-screened for potential symptoms. Recruits are also questioned before each shift and have their temperatures taken and recorded by a Seek Scan thermal camera device that the fire service purchased and implemented as soon as the first cases began cropping up, Stolberg said.

“The recruits step in front of this monitor and it gives us a measurement of temperatures of their face. We’ve set it at a lower threshold, 99.5 degrees, which is one degree below what a recognized fever is, and if it exceeds the threshold we set, it gives an audio and visual alarm,” Stolberg said. “It captures a picture, the time and the date, so we can go back and check everybody’s information at any given point.”

Recruits have free access to cleaning wipes and disinfectant and regularly wipe down and clean their own spaces as well as common spaces throughout the facility, such as restrooms and water fountains, the chief said. This is all in addition to the increased cleaning done by custodial services, who thoroughly sanitize the facility every evening.

As unprecedented and alarming as the outbreak has been for first responders — forcing the fire service to undertake dramatic policy and protocol changes to combat a threat invisible to the naked eye — Sherrard said he hasn’t for a moment doubted his decision to take up a career in public safety.

“Honestly, this is what I signed up to do, it is a little bit concerning, but I applied for this position knowing what I was signing up for and I’m glad to be in the position that I’m in,” Sherrard said.

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