CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee- As well reported Thursday, firefighters might not receive the first wave of the COVID Vaccine.
“We lean heavy on safety as a whole because of the nature of the business we’re in,” said Chief Phil Hyman.
“Firefighters are already pretty well prepared. We use N95s And a lot of medical calls we run even prior to Covid but we did have to do, is step up the number of N95s we keep in stock,” said Hyman.
For the last several months, firefighters have had to wear an additional level of protection due to Covid.
“We did up to but I would’ve called P100s they are a canister that attaches to our face piece that we wear with our Airpax to go into fires so if firefighter can take their face peace and hope this cartridge up another front of it and get multiple multiple uses out of this one canister to protect them against Covid,” said Hyman.
Chief Hyman said firefighter safety and COVID safety go hand and hand.
“We’re used to stepping up at the safety game and it’s just another piece of our business that we’re having to pay attention to. It is a chore, it is work but it’s something that’s important to protect firefighters,” said Hyman.
Chief Hyman said all the additional safety procedures such as masks go to protect not only the firefighters but the people they serve.
“If they happen to have Covid and don’t know it at least if there were a mask they’re not transferring that disease to someone else. Doubt protects the firefighters as well we might put a mask on that individual they could lead back to that individual as well,” said Hyman.