PHOTO: Battling wildfires while battling the COVID-19 pandemic “definitely added a new challenge” for Arizona fire officials this year, but it’s a challenge many say they have met.
Exact numbers are hard to come by, but calls to fire departments around the state found most officials reporting only a handful of positive test results on their crews – and they believe many of those came from exposure off the job.
“We’ve had one or two people off a hotshot (wildfire) crew test positive but the rest of the crew tested negative,” said Todd Abel, wildland and battalion chief for Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority. “That’s just my personal experience, there haven’t been a lot of positive cases during an assignment and just a few of them post-assignment.”
Jayson Coil, assistant chief of operations at the Sedona Fire District, said Arizona firefighters have been “doing an excellent job” juggling COVID-19 protocols and firefighting duties.