Rodrigo Torrejon
nj.com
HACKENSACK, N.J. — More than a quarter of a Bergen County fire department was sidelined after COVID-19 exposure, including eight firefighters that tested positive, the fire chief said.
As of Tuesday, 30 firefighters from the Hackensack Fire Department were quarantined due to exposure to COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, said Fire Chief Thomas Freeman.
Of the eight who tested positive, two were experiencing severe symptoms, including pneumonia, and had been hospitalized, said Freeman. But as of Tuesday afternoon, one of those two had improved and was likely returning home, he said. The other may be returning home Wednesday, he said.
The other six firefighters who tested positive were either experiencing mild, flu-like symptoms or were asymptomatic, said Freeman.
The 30 firefighters taken out of active duty represent 30% of the city’s 100 member fire department, said Freeman. The fire department, which normally operates with 24 firefighters working 24-hours shifts, has been able to meet the minimum staffing requirements, with at least 18 firefighters working the shifts, he said.
“We’re still able to meet our minimum manning,” said Freeman. “A lot of guys are working OT shifts. We’ve had no shortages in manpower.”
Figuring out where the outbreak started was difficult to determine, said Freeman, but the investigation started one morning when a firefighter began having trouble breathing after 20 to 22 hours of his 24 hour shift, said Freeman.
After the firefighter reported having trouble breathing, the contact tracing process went back through all the fire calls the firefighter was on and the companies that had been in contact with him, said Freeman. After that process, several more firefighters tested positive.
Despite a strict face mask policy, it was near impossible to keep the masks on at all times, as firefighters would need to remove face coverings to don turnout gear and firefighters’ SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) masks when on a fire call, said Freeman.
“It’s rather difficult in our line of work to keep our face covering on all the time,” said Freeman.
To make matters more difficult, firefighters on the same shift work in close quarters with each other, often eating and sleeping in the same space and responding to calls in the cramped cabs of fire trucks, said Freeman.
The firefighters’ quarantines were staggered, with the first group of firefighters due to return to duty Thursday, said Freeman.
Freeman, on behalf of the fire department, thanked the public and city officials for support, as well as the firefighters who have stepped up to fill in coverage gaps as their fellow firefighters recovered.
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit New Jersey, hundreds of first responders and front-liners have contracted the virus and succumbed to its effects. Unlike many essential workers, first responders are often required to come into close contact with people potentially infected with the virus.
Early in the pandemic, several firefighters in Passaic County died from the coronavirus, with fire departments pushing to designate those deaths as “line of duty” deaths that make benefits available to families of those who died.
In August, President Donald Trump signed legislation to automatically pay federal death benefits to the families of first responders who die of the coronavirus.
The coronavirus outbreak in the Hackensack Fire Department comes as the Garden State vies with surging cases of the virus, likely brought on by the Thanksgiving holiday.
On Tuesday, the state reported another 5,820 new positive coronavirus tests and an additional 90 confirmed deaths. The seven-day average for daily positive tests is now above 5,000 for the first time and recent modeling by state health officials suggested the peak would come closer to mid-December. The average number of cases increased to 5,106 on Tuesday, up 26% from a week ago and 135% from a month ago.
The state’s hospitals reported 3,481 patients as of Monday night, the highest number in nearly seven months, as new admissions continue to outpace those being discharged.
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