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Eleven Andover firefighters — or 23 percent of the department — are currently under quarantine due to possible exposure to the coronavirus, fire Chief Michael Mansfield said Friday.
After one firefighter tested positive for the coronavirus and was quarantined in late March, another 10 he had come into contact with were also advised to isolate, Mansfield said.
"This guy had worked with people on a couple of different shifts," Mansfield said. "He was in close contact with people as a result of performing normal duties in the fire station and responding to incidents."
The firefighter who tested positive is suffering from "severe, persistent headaches that are somewhat debilitating," Mansfield said.
The 10 other firefighters are not showing any signs of having the virus, the chief said.
Andover is just the latest town whose firefighters have been hit with quarantines as a result of the coronavirus. Until earlier this week, Methuen had 10 firefighters out, while Salem, N.H., had as many as nine firefighters on quarantine last month. In the case of Methuen and Salem, the departments have been restored to nearly full strength.
The high numbers come even as the peak of the coronavirus wave isn't expected to hit either state for another week or two. But the early wave of quarantines have taught the departments valuable lessons on readiness.
"It's been a learning curve for everybody," Methuen Deputy Fire Chief Scott Sullivan said.
Andover
Union President Eric Teichert told The Eagle-Tribune last week that he had been notified Monday, March 30, that a firefighter had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The firefighters that man had worked with during the previous week were all told of the situation.
Mansfield said they have since been quarantined and are not expected back into service until April 12 or 13 at the earliest, "providing there are no other issues."
He said the department, which has 68 firefighters, has been able to back-fill the vacancies with overtime. In some cases, firefighters are working consecutive shifts, he added.
"Some don't mind working on consecutive shifts but at some point, it will become a safety issue," he said. "We're OK now, but if we have to quarantine any additional staff, we have plans in place to deal with that."
Those plans include mutual aid with other Merrimack Valley fire departments, he said.
"The chiefs have had discussions on how to handle it," he said. "At the moment, we still have the capability to execute our mission."
He said he has been working closely with union leadership on "procedural changes," such as checking the temperature of firefighters when they start and finish their shifts and making sure those who come in for overtime details do not enter the main station.
"It's a very restrictive environment," he said, adding that the union has extremely cooperative and helpful.
Meanwhile, a cleaning company spent two days scouring the central station on Main Street, doing what they called a "deep clean" which included scrubbing common areas and "fogging" other parts of the station to decontaminate surfaces.
"It's an extensive process," Mansfield said.
Methuen
In Methuen, fire Chief Tim Sheehy said the department went through a bit of a scare but seems to have come through it without any major problems.
He said that earlier in March, four firefighters — two each on separate calls — were exposed to patients who later tested positive for the virus.
They were wearing gloves but not masks and so they were exposed, Sheehy said. All four were quarantined from the date of the contact with the patients who tested positive.
Two of them had symptoms for a couple of days but all have since been cleared to return to work.
Another six firefighters were quarantined based on contact they had with people outside of work.
Two of them still have symptoms while the rest have been cleared to return, according to Sullivan.
"We are almost back to full strength," Sullivan said. "We've been taking on stringent cleaning of all the fire stations and all the equipment."
Sheehy said the cases have helped the department craft new protocols for responding to calls, not just those that may include coronavirus.
"They weren't wearing masks and suits," he said of the four firefighters who were exposed to the virus.
Now, however, firefighters are all wearing Tyvek suits, gloves, masks and face shields.
"We are wearing it on every call now," he said.
Salem, N.H.
North of the border, Salem has been through the gauntlet as well, where nine firefighters were quarantined over a two-week stretch as the result of being exposed to a patient with flu-like symptoms.
Last Friday, March 27, three of firefighters received word that the patient with symptoms they took to a Boston hospital March 16 tested negative for the virus.
They had been quarantined in one of the town's stations so as to limit spread to other firefighters or their families.
Six other firefighters had also been quarantined over the past few weeks because of potential COVID-19 exposure. They were all released after getting back negative results from the patients they transferred, according to Fire Chief Lawrence Best.
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