HELENA — In response to COVID 19, West Valley/Lewis and Clark County Volunteer Fire Department (WVLCVFD) has modified their medical response policy to limit face to face exposure.
Following national trends, on medical calls the department will now only have one responder make initial contact from the front door to assess the need for more help if needed.
West Valley said it is a priority to keep their personnel healthy. If they had to quarantine or isolate 3 or 4 volunteers due to exposure to the virus, that would then be a crew that wouldn't be able to respond to other emergencies.
“If everyone in the department is sick, who's going to put out the house fire?” said Cpt. Tim Dusenberry of WVLCVFD. “So we’re going to limit the number of individuals we have in the house on an EMT call to the minimum amount. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to not bring enough people to get the job done, but we are limiting if we can.”
West Valley has procedures in place for personnel responding to a potential coronavirus case, and encourages everyone to be safe and healthy.
