Yakima County firefighters are taking steps to ensure they have enough personal protective equipment when they go on medical calls during the coronavirus pandemic.
Some of the Valley’s larger departments are limiting the number of people who go in to work with a patient, stretching out the supply of masks, gowns and gloves. They also are looking for ways to keep supplied with gear.
“We went out to a veterinarian’s supply store,” said Nathan Craig, chief of the West Valley Fire Department.
Craig and his colleagues at the Yakima County Fire District 5, East Valley and Yakima fire departments say they will happily accept any donations of protective gear from the public.
“We currently have some N95 masks on hand,” Yakima fire Chief Aaron Markham said in a statement posted to the department’s Facebook page. “We are using them appropriately and sparingly.”