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Responding to incidents like Sunday's massive recycling plant blaze is nothing new for Texas fire crews.
But the multiple departments—Montana Vista, Clint, Horizon, Fabens, West Valley and El Paso Emergency Services District No. 1 and No. 2—that tackled the fire in Montana Vista did so while embracing social distancing, KTSM-TV reports. The blaze was the first large fire that those departments had encountered since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
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“A lot of our job demands that we are right next to each other helping out, and this is, for us, a little bit different,” El Paso County ESD No. 2 Chief Roger Esparza told KTSM. "The camaraderie has been changing."
While battling the flames and smoke, firefighters wore masks and air packs, giving them protection from the virus. But when that gear was off, social distancing rules applied.
“When we’re wearing this we’re on air (oxygen), we can be on top of each other, and we’re not sharing air we’re not sharing anything,” El Paso County ESD No. 1 Fire Chief Kris Menendez told KTSM.
