- April 19, 2024
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The four members of the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department who were quarantined last month because of exposure to COVID-19 have returned to work, according to Fire Chief Paul Dezzi.
Dezzi said the four members came back to work on April 5 and are healthy.
“We met with the health department and followed the CDC guidelines. We placed them into the quarantine for 14 days,” Dezzi said. “While they were quarantined for 14 days, every day, twice a day, they had to take their temperature. Jot that down, and then the health department nurse made contact with them periodically to see how they were doing.”
Because the members did not have a high temperature or show symptoms of COVID-19 after the two-week quarantine, Dezzi said the fire department had confidence in having them return to work.
No other members of the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department have been quarantined or tested positive for COVID-19, according to Dezzi.
To prevent the spread of coronavirus, Dezzi said cleaning protocols have changed at both of the town’s fire rescue stations on Gulf of Mexico Drive. Crews clean the floor areas, the bed areas of the bunk rooms and the offices each day.
“We don’t allow anybody to come in fire stations that are working with their work shoes on,” Dezzi said. “They have to have what we call station wear. They come in with station-wear shoes, so that when they come into the inside of the enclosed firehouse, they walk in, in a clean environment.”
Dezzi said ambulances and fire trucks also get disinfected after returning from a flu-type call.
Compared to last year, Dezzi said the town has not seen an increase in the number of 911 calls.
“We haven’t seen any increase in calls,” Dezzi said. “A couple weeks ago, we saw an increase in the flu-like type symptoms calls, but we have not seen that since. I think a lot of people have left to go back to their normal homes up north.”
Longboat Key Fire Rescue is considering requiring personnel to wear surgical masks if they have to leave the firehouse for any reason, Dezzi said. The policy could start as soon as next week.
Dezzi said it was important for first responders across municipalities to have a consistent mask policy.
“Let’s give an example. If Longboat Key is assisting Sarasota County, or vice versa, and Sarasota County is wearing the mask and we’re not, our firemen are going to say, ‘Well, what’s going on? Why?’” Dezzi said.
The decision comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation to wear cloth face coverings.
Dezzi said a Longboat Key resident is in the process making 100 reusable cloth masks for the department.
“She’s already given us a prototype,” Dezzi said. “We’ve checked it out. We agree with it… It’s pretty neat. She’s stepped up to the plate to help us.”
Dezzi said the department and town staff continue to check the “burn rate” to make sure personal protective equipment is well stocked. He said Longboat Key does not go through as much equipment as other fire departments in Manatee and Sarasota counties.
“What we do is we get a list of what we've used and what we have left every day,” Dezzi said. “Currently, we're in good shape. We do have some more N-95 masks that we'll be getting next week, which is going to be used for department personnel.”
Dezzi wanted to make sure Longboat Key residents knew about how fire rescue has made some changes in operation.
“Understand that we may call you or FaceTime you,” Dezzi said. “We're going to show up with a mask and gown and everything else until we decide that you're not or the patient is not a COVID-19 or a flu-like type patient, and we can go ahead and downgrade the call from that point.”
As of Friday morning, reports from the Florida Department of Health list seven positive COVID-19 tests in Longboat Key, though five additional cases of visitors to the area were noted on a map produced by Sarasota County.
Click or tap here for more of the Observer’s coronavirus coverage.
