The Portland Fire Department's entire Bramhall and Engine 11 Stations called out sick Sunday.
"Basically what happened is we had a member who came in and didn't know that they were COVID positive but after they got off duty they found out," Portland Firefighters Local 740 Union President Chris Thomson said. Thomson said that caused concern for others who work the same shift because the on-duty firefighters spend 24 hours at a time together.
Portland firefighters work 24 hours on, 24 hours off, 24 hours on, five days off. When asked if these employees who called out on Sunday will be quarantined for 14 days, "you're able to achieve that quarantine by just taking that condensed one week, the two 24 hour periods off," Local 740 Vice President Ben Freedman said.
According to Portland Communications Director Jessica Grondin, the fire department members called out sick out of an abundance of caution concerning COVID-19.