Menlo Park Fire Protection District
COVID 19 – Pandemic Update
Pandemic Emergency Response Unit taken out of service!
Three months after being one of the first in the Nation to establish a special response unit
Three months after first going into service on March 21, 2020, the Fire District’s two person Pandemic Emergency Response Unit was taken out of service today. The special response unit was one of the first of its kind in the Nation to specifically respond to any suspected COVID-19 medical incident in the Fire District. Firefighter Paramedics, who volunteered to be on the unit, were provided with not only the best personal protective equipment (PPE), but helped to advance patient treatment methodologies, medical equipment use and decontamination procedures and guidelines to keep sick patients, fellow firefighters and themselves from contracting, or spreading, the virus.
The Menlo Park Fire Protection District, which provides critical fire and emergency services to its areas in the Town of Atherton, Cities of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, unincorporated San Mateo County and the SLAC National Accelerator and Laboratories. Despite some early missteps and firefighter exposures, the Fire District was ultimately successful in trying to navigate, prepare and prevent, an unexpected draw down on its most precious resource, its firefighters! Having a singular emergency response unit dedicated to COVID 19 was a creative strategy supported by its workforce of almost 100 Firefighters and Command Staff, who equally wanted to protect each other and their own families.
Fire Chief Schapelhouman said “We know the pandemic isn’t over yet, but based upon the decreased number of COVID 19 emergency medical incidents we are experiencing, our expanded understanding of how the virus spreads, patient care protocols, and actual County wide data on new patient cases, testing, available ventilators, ICU bed space available and other relevant factors, we are re-purposing this unit back to the Belle Haven area of Menlo Park and City of East Palo Alto, where we are experiencing an increase in encampment and fireworks related fires, that this smaller four wheel drive pump and roll unit is extremely effective at combating. We were prepared to expand this special response unit concept, but fortunately that was not needed”.
In the three months that the special Pandemic Medical Response Unit was in service, the Fire District responded to 1024 Emergency Medical Incidents District wide. While the actual number of potential, or possible COVID 19 medical incidents was at 133. Of those COVID responses, 22 patients ultimately tested positive for the virus. Thirteen of one hundred firefighters were tested for COVID 19, based upon potential exposures, fortunately none tested positive for the virus.
Fire Engineer/Paramedic Travis Hooper demonstrates what it looks like when he shows up to a medical incident where the patient is suspected of having COVID-19 (Credit Menlo Fire)
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