TONEY, Alabama — The pandemic is creating challenges for local volunteer fire departments.
Toney Volunteer Fire Department President Heath Jones said the pandemic has prevented them from getting out in the community like normal. This is affecting both their recruiting process and fundraisers.
While fundraising efforts have been put on hold, the cost needed to run the fire department is up. They now have to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) for firefighters to wear when responding to medical calls.
"Our PPE consists of gloves, an N-95 mask, a face shield, eye protection and a medical gown that we don just to make patient contact," said Jones.
They have received grants to help pay for PPE, but they go through a lot of it quickly.
The Toney Volunteer Fire Department has already surpassed the number of calls from 2019. Jones says they average 2 to 3 COVID related emergency medical calls a day.
Toney firefighters responded to 1,175 calls in 2019. So far in 2020, they have responded to 1,230 calls.
"We're having a record year," said Jones. "We broke our record last month for the most calls we've ever run, but I just want the community members to know we are there for them. We are responding."
Firefighters have altered their response guidelines throughout the pandemic. Jones says it's important for people to be honest about if they are showing signs or symptoms of COVID-19 when calling for help.
"At the beginning of the coronavirus, we kind of scaled back. We were not allowing any non-EMS personnel on any type of emergency medical call," said Jones. "Now that we have our supply of PPE, we are continuing that, but we are requiring all of our personnel to don their proper PPE prior to making any patient contact if they have any symptoms of the coronavirus."
The Toney Volunteer Fire Department has picked up two new volunteers this year.
The fire department is always taking applications for new volunteers. Click here for the application.
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