A small fire department takes a big hit. Ceres Fire Chief Kevin Wise said at least six of his firefighters have tested positive for COVID-19 since last Thursday.
“We knew it was going to be inevitable; somebody would finally test positive,” Wise said.
The first case came to light Thursday morning with two more positive cases happening that afternoon. After having the whole department tested on Friday, another positive test came back with two more over the weekend.
“I really hope we can stop this at six personnel. But, if it goes further, you know, it’s going to be very detrimental to our department,” Wise said.
Wise said the department continues to follow proper sanitization procedures after these positive cases. The department is also stopping joint agency training exercises and significantly cutting down on physical interaction and heightened mask wearing for their own firefighters at their stations.