THURSDAY, APR IL 30, 2020 • KOKOMO TR IBUNE / PHAROS-TR IBUNE
29
Logansport
Fire
Department
Firefighters
Rusty Logan,
left, and
Kevin Smith
wear masks
and gloves
to safeguard
against the
spread of
COVID-19.
virus including COVID-19 at each of its
locations, according to Metz. There are
essentially five ambulances within Cass
County — three 24-hour ambulances, one
at the Galveston Fire Department and
one on-site allocated as an extra resource
as needed. Each ambulance is jet fogged
every 24 hours and the process takes
about an hour and a half. The ambulances
are also fogged after transporting a sus-
pected COVID-19 patient as well.
Metz said that Phoenix is also the first
EMS agency in Indiana to implement
plasma COVID testing. The tests check
for antibodies that are generated when an
individual is exposed to the coronavirus
and essentially assesses the immunity to
the virus in the individual.
“All of our staff have been plasma tested
and we have those plasma tests available
as well on ambulances if needed, to use
them on highly suspected cases as well,
so that way our crews really understand
whether or not they’re dealing with some-
one with COVID-19 or not,” he said. The
tests take about 10 minutes to be com-
pleted.
Metz said that the state has helped in
a few other ways: granting temporary
recertification to recently retired but able-
bodied EMS individuals to come back in
to service again; streamlining individuals
who are in paramedic school and getting
ready to graduate so they can start acting
as a paramedic right away; and suspend-
ing recertification deadlines during this
period.
LOGANSPORT
FIRE DEPARTMENT
LFD has changed its EMS response
to calls procedures and is now only
responding to life threatening calls and
pediatric calls to try to limit exposure.
“We’re not going out of the station that
often and staying in place,” said LFD Fire
Chief Rick Bair. “We’re kind of following
the same guidelines as everybody else.
We’re working with the health depart-
ment on our supplies, which we’re doing
really well on. We have had some people
come in and donate cloth masks because
we can launder them.”
Bair said that the department has pro-
vided each firefighter with one fabric
mask and they also have a couple of N95
and surgical masks on hand. They also
have the capabilities to put air cartridge
filters on their SCBR (or self-contained
breathing apparatus) masks, which
are the big face shields they use when
going into a burning building, which are
hooked up to a respirator.
They can be seen wearing fabric
masks, gloves, eye protection, gowns, etc.
“Our biggest challenge is because we
can’t really change our response, because
all of our equipment is at central,” he
said. “We’re just trying to really watch
— we’re taking everybody’s tempera-
ture twice a day as they come in to work
and in the evening, and if there is any-
body that has a fever, they’re to go home
immediately.”
Bair said that the city put a policy in
place that would allow anybody that falls
within the at-risk criteria — those who
are 60-years or older, diabetic or have
cardiac or lung related health problems
— to take time off work and not be penal-
ized.
“We offered that to our guys, but no
one has done it, so we’re pretty much still
running at status quo with our staffing
and we have just limited our responses
on certain medical calls,” Bair said. “We
did have one of our firefighters go home
because his wife has a business outside
of town and one of the clients that came
in was then found to have COVID. So
they basically shut her business down
for I think a week and we had sent him
home just because he had been around
his wife, obviously. He was basically on
a quarantine for about 10 days but noth-
ing came of it. We’ve been real fortunate
with the health of the guys and their
families are healthy.”
CITY, COUNTY POLICE
The Logansport Police Department
and Cass County Sheriff’s Department
are operating on similar policies as one
another. Both agencies are asking offi-
cers to only make contact with the public
when absolutely necessary.
Many of the officers are taking care of
calls via telephone, if possible. They are
also having dispatchers explain to com-
plainants that the officer may ask them
to come outside.
“I think we’re doing all the state safety
things most police departments are,”
said Cass County Sheriff Ed Schroder.
Officers have access to personal pro-
tective equipment in the form of glasses
and masks, and each have surgical gowns
— but there is only so much to go around.
“We have a very limited number,”
Schroder said. “We’re trying to really
prioritize usage. We’ve had a lot of great
citizens who’ve made cloth masks for
us so every deputy has one or two of
those — I have at least one. That’s what I
wear around the office and when I go to
the jails. We have probably just enough
for one major incident and then we’ll be
out, so we’re really trying to prioritize,
scrutinize. It’s important for us but it’s
so much more important for our health
care professionals who know they’re in it
every day.”
Logansport Police Department Chief
Travis Yike said that the LPD was out of
hand sanitizer for several days. They’ve
been out of disinfectant wipes and have
a limited supply of Lysol. They also had
a company disinfect the entire building
through a similar process as the micro-
chip jet fogger the EMS providers use.
Charles Haywood, president and
CEO of Mansfield-King in Indianapolis,
donated several hundred bottles of hand
sanitizer to the LPD and the CCSD earlier
this week. Mansfield-King changed their
operations frommanufacturing cosmetic
and beauty supplies to making hand sani-
tizers at its facility in Indianapolis.
