While the majority of the country is asked to stay home as a pandemic rages on, others are on the front lines, helping those in need.

For Jackson Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Glenn Elmore, responding to calls is about keeping his community safe. This community is his family.

“I see my children. I see my grandchildren. My parents have passed away, but I can still see them,” he said.

“I believe most of our people in our department who have stepped up to do this have that same type of feeling, that as long as we try to be as safe as we can, and as safe for the community as we can, we’re going to try to keep doing this.”

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Firefighters in Brown County are all volunteers. They’ve never been paid to respond to fires, crashes and medical emergencies. Now, they’re being dispatched to scenes where they could be exposed to the deadly COVID-19 virus.

“If I don’t do it, who else will?” said Brown County (Nashville) Volunteer Fire Department Chief Nick Kelp.

“I feel responsible for those of us who are here on my department, on other departments in the county. I feel some level of responsibility for the people that call who need help. I just try to do my best.”

Taking precautions

Police, EMS personnel and volunteer firefighters are taking extra precautions against COVID-19, but supplies are dwindling.

Jackson Township Fire Department acquired a supply of personal protective equipment (PPE), including self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA), masks, gloves and gowns, when the Ebola virus outbreak happened in 2014, Elmore said.

“But they also are dwindling, because when we go on these runs, a lot of this stuff we can’t reuse. We have to throw away even if it’s just flu-type symptoms,” he said.

Over the years, the department has trained volunteers on how to respond to a contagion. They have also screened volunteers to see who is willing to respond to calls that might expose them to COVID-19.

“They have to totally, 100 percent volunteer for this. Nobody is being made or asked to do this,” Elmore said.

Some departments are also limiting how many people go on medical runs as an added precaution, said Brown County Emergency Management Director Susan Armstrong.

Brown County dispatchers screen every call that comes in 911 to see if anyone at the home is at risk for having the virus before responders are sent so they will know to take appropriate precautions.

If someone has a positive screen, Elmore said firefighters will wear SCBAs to protect their respiratory systems. Even for negative screens, firefighters will still wear gowns, goggles, masks and gloves.

Currently, the protocol from Columbus Regional Health is that when EMS and fire are dispatched to a medical emergency, volunteer firefighters are asked to hang back and let EMS personnel enter a home first. Then, they will be called in if additional help is needed, Armstrong said.

“We’re not just needlessly exposing people. If they need help, at that time, we’ll don all of the protective equipment, then go in and help them,” Kelp said.

CRH EMS personnel are using battery-operated respirators on calls with positive screens, along with gloves, masks and a body suit that can go over their clothes.

The biggest concern for Elmore right now is how long the pandemic will last, and if his department will have the resources to fight it.

Kelp said his department’s supplies in Nashville are already low.

“I think even hospitals are running out. They are probably the highest priority in getting them,” he said.

“Right now, we just have Tyvek suits that we’re going to wear in place of a gown to protect any exposure we might get, like if someone were to cough on us or something like that.”

Tyvek protective suits are for one-time use, but Kelp said his department has not had to use them yet.

“We have enough for right now, but if we start getting a lot of these positive screens, we’re going to run out of them real quick,” he said.

Securing supplies

When the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Indiana on March 6, Armstrong and Public Health Preparedness Coordinator Corey Frost immediately went to work getting all of the protocols in place in case the virus made its way here, like resource requests and mutual aid agreements.

They also had to figure out how testing for the virus was happening and where people could go to get tested.

Currently, no testing is being offered in Brown County, but residents have gone to hospitals in surrounding counties if a virtual screening with their physician qualifies them to receive a test.

A task force, the Brown County COAD, was also created to help with the response to COVID-19 concerns and questions from residents.

“One of the biggest things that came off my shoulders early was how we were going to work with members of the community who needed food, grocery shopping done, or how do we get medicines picked up?” Armstrong said.

COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster) has a hotline for essential needs and emergencies related to food, medicine, transportation and other issues. The number is 812-988-0001. “That was a huge help for me,” Armstrong said.

Now Armstrong’s days start with getting updated numbers from the Indiana State Department of Health on the confirmed cases in the state and how many tests have been given, and virus-related deaths.

Armstrong and Frost also work with nurse Jennifer Unsworth with the Brown County Health Department on tracing positive cases in the county and who those people have had contact with.

The first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Brown County on March 23. The county now has eight confirmed cases. No identifying or demographic information has been released about the patients.

With protocols and procedures in place, Armstrong said she is now able to focus more on working with first responders to make sure they have everything they need. Her challenge now is getting more protective equipment and sanitizing supplies for the volunteer fire departments, since most were only designed to be used once.

“Some of them were in a little bit better of a place going into this for this. It is so unprecedented. Even with the supplies they had, nobody expected something like this that was going on this long,” Armstrong said.

Late last month, local distilleries donated hand sanitizer to first responders, which had been another need.

“Now the big things are the gloves and the masks. We can’t find any anywhere,” Armstrong said.

Frost works with Brown County Health and Living and the Brown County Wellness Clinic on their needs. Both of them coordinate with CRH ambulance service and the county’s dispatch on anything that needs changed in protocols.

Armstrong is currently working to get filters for SCBA masks that would not require firefighters to carry around an air tank with them. The air tanks help firefighters get the same protection as a N95 mask, which is what has been suggested by medical professionals for protection against the virus.

Keeping distance

Unlike a natural disaster, where funding assistance from the state or federal government would go toward helping the county clean up, this pandemic’s main expense will be manpower to fight it.

“The teams are already tight. If one goes down, we have to pay overtime to fill the gap. We are paying well people more to work,” commissioner Diana Biddle said.

Even during a pandemic, laws must be enforced, so local police are taking as many precautions as they can to protect themselves and the public.

Sheriff Scott Southerland said his department now has two separate teams who do not come into contact with each other while working. For dispatch, there are three teams who never overlap except at shift change.

“They are disinfecting regularly. We’re trying to just keep people separated, so if this group comes down sick that we don’t lose everyone at once, hopefully,” he said.

“We’re stretched thin, and it’s really going to hurt when someone comes down sick.”

Currently, one jail officer is in quarantine for two weeks for a fever and other symptoms. That officer was not tested for the virus. Another jailer officer is not working currently due to his health conditions, Southerland said.

Last month, the jail also lost another officer when a person left for another job.

“We’re getting by, but if one or two more people drop out sick, we’re going to be hurting really bad,” Southerland said.

So far, deputies are all healthy, but as an added precaution, they are no longer assisting on medical calls.

The sheriff’s department is also working to keep the jail population down by doing “long form” enforcement, which is writing reports, then sending them to the prosecutor to review and to file charges. If a person is charged, they will then be summoned to appear in court.

But the long form route is not for all crimes.

“If it was a crime of violence, domestic battery, driving under the influence and things like that, there are some cases we would have to (arrest), but if there’s a possibility they could be summoned at a later day, then we’re doing that,” Southerland said.

“We don’t want to bring people from the outside into the jail and possibly introduce it into the population in there if that can be avoided.”

If a person is brought in to the jail, the plan is for them to be segregated from the regular population until they are checked out by a nurse.

Deputies are also less likely to respond directly to a home for smaller crimes, like fraud or theft. “We may be taking reports over the telephone instead of coming out to your house,” Southerland said.

“That’s just to protect us, and to protect them, because we might be carrying it unknowingly.”

Southerland said his department has sanitizer, gloves, masks and other protective equipment. “The biggest thing is staying away from people,” he said.

“If we do (come into contact), we have disinfectant to clean our gear and equipment with, sanitize everything, not just the hand sanitizer, but the things that kill viruses and bacteria. We do what we can. … Sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do and take the risk.”

“Don’t be offended if we stand back 6 feet from you when we’re talking to you, or we don’t shake your hand,” he said.

Armstrong said that first responders who have been exposed have been instructed to call CRH or Indiana University Health to do a pre-screen. She said that most departments let her and Frost know if there was a possible exposure so they can help try and speed up the testing process.

“It’s definitely a long process for anyone who is wanting to get tested right now. … You’ve got to go through the right process, then as long as you meet those algorithms (you can get tested),” she said.

Currently, it takes between two and 10 days to get results back.

Armstrong said it’s important for people to follow social distancing rules and to stay home as much as possible.

“Every time I hear a positive screen go out, my heart drops a little bit,” Armstrong said.

“What are we going to do if that comes back a positive? We’ve been lucky so far. We’ve got responders that are doing everything they can to limit that exposure, so I’m hoping we can dodge that bullet for a long time. … We’ve been lucky so far that we only have three positive tests (among Brown County residents). I would really like to keep it that way.”

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Q: Is there any movement on getting testing in Brown County, for first responders or for regular people?

Public Health Preparedness Coordinator Corey Frost: “It’s still so limited. That’s a national struggle. I know they’re making them by the hundreds of thousands and getting them out strategically. I know they’re deploying those to hot spot areas where there’s a bigger surge. Locally, I don’t see it coming here today. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. The situation evolves pretty quick.”

Q: Do you think our three positive cases (as of April 3) are an accurate number?

Frost: “They’re accurate as far what the lab tests said.”

Brown County Health Officer Norman Oestrike: “Testing is still for the high risk. You have to meet specific criteria to get a test. They’re not just able to test everybody and have a clear picture of what’s going on and what we’re dealing with. … I think that number shows you how sincere our older residents are about this, and that makes it even more unfair for outsiders to come in and contaminate.”

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