The COVID pandemic forced departments to step up their game for sanitizing fire apparatus. This month, we asked Bill Adams (top) and Ricky Riley (bottom): “Moving forward, how should departments equip their rigs for the health of their firefighters?”
Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
October’s Viewpoints topic about “clean cabs” reducing carcinogen exposure covered the seriousness of sanitizing fire apparatus cabs. Hence, cabs are not addressed herein. Exposure to hazardous “conditions” not necessarily related to actual firefighting can be equally detrimental to firefighters’ health and well-being. Reducing those conditions may not require equipping apparatus with specific accoutrements for sanitizing the rig itself.
It is debatable whether the mandated “rules and regulations” for sanitizing vehicles primarily used for the treatment and transport of “victims” should be applicable to structural fire apparatus. (My definition of victim and patient: When firefighters bandage a person’s cut finger, that person is a victim. If the firefighters replace the bandage the next day, they’re treating a patient.)
Structural apparatus often respond to EMS calls providing primary treatment prior to the arrival of designated EMS vehicles—or to provide additional support for them. It is reasonable that sanitizing the equipment used and protecting those firefighters be identical for EMS providers.
Non-EMS Exposure
Firefighters and their equipment can be exposed to contaminants during nondirect firefighting that include hazardous products such as liquids, chemicals, fertilizers, and a multitude of other commodities. The cleaning or sanitizing of said equipment and the personal protective equipment (PPE) used is as important as neutralizing known cancer-causing contaminants whether they be airborne or in a solid form.
Sanitizing the apparatus itself might not be as effective as cleaning and sanitizing the equipment used prior to replacing it on the rig. For known “nasty stuff,” there are hazardous materials reference books that should be carried on all apparatus. For the unknown and “possible” exposures and average day-to-day incidents (if they exist), revert to common sense.
Badge of Honor
Firefighters wearing the grungiest PPE were often emulated. One badge of honor was a heat-warped leather helmet with its eye protection and front piece burned beyond recognition. Hopefully, those days are long gone.
Wokeness
Have wokeness and political correctness infiltrated the fire service? When controversial topics arise, advocators and accusers may expound on them to influence the meek or uninformed to comply. The easily swayable usually comply so they don’t lose face or to prevent being labeled uncaring. Perhaps it makes them “feel good.” Promotors could have hidden or personal agendas. Wondering if vendors “spin” merely to sell product is not an accusation; it is merely an observation.
Providing firefighters with a safe and healthy environment is enviable. I say, “Don’t make me—or yourself—feel better; make me safer.” It is not unreasonable to ask how efficacious proposed protocols and initiatives are. Asking for substantiating facts and data is appropriate. The authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) is obligated to ask whether an advertised product or proposed protocol will actually prevent cancer or other ailments. The AHJ and firefighters deserve to know.
Clean or Sanitize?
Should you clean or sanitize your rig or just exposed equipment—or both? Ask the people who operate garbage trucks (refuse vehicles), rigs that pump out cesspools, and those who are responsible for cleaning ambulances and associated equipment. If necessary, to elevate to sanitizing, inquire what people use to clean hospitals and, in particular, operating rooms. Those people ought to know.
Common Sense
Common sense shouldn’t be a lost commodity. Parents tell children to wash their hands before eating and after going to the bathroom. Were you ever told not to eat yellow snow? An old EMS axiom is: “If it is wet and warm and it ain’t yours—don’t touch it.” Soap, water, and elbow grease are a good start to keep yourself and your equipment clean.
Education/Procedures/Enforcement
Commentators bloviate about decontamination showers, sanitization, what PHI is, what UV technology means, how effective in-field cleaning is, what HEPA filters are, and who sells what to sanitize and the best ways to accomplish it.
Firefighter health and safety start with each individual. Fire department hierarchy and the AHJ have the responsibility to determine the hazards their firefighters face. They must educate themselves first, then determine a plan of action to mitigate those hazards. It is imperative they educate their firefighters. After procedures are established, enforcing them should be nonnegotiable.
The fire service is an inherently dangerous vocation. There is more to ensuring firefighter wellness than just sanitizing the apparatus. Not all firefighters observe a religion; however, the saying “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” might have a degree of merit.
BILL ADAMS is a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board, a former fire apparatus salesman, and a past chief of the East Rochester (NY) Fire Department. He has 50 years of experience in the volunteer fire service.
Pandemic Pushed the Issue to Forefront
Scrambling for Solutions
We continue to look at this issue across the fire service. It all got its start with the clean cab concept and then morphed into the pandemic crisis that struck our country and the world. There was a lot going on with the need to sanitize rigs and work to have a better and safe environment inside the cab of the apparatus. The pandemic forced us to look again at the inside of the cabs to see what we could do to make them able to stand up to what departments needed to do to provide a safe haven for our personnel.
Almost immediately, when the pandemic struck, fire departments were scrambling to find ways to clean and sanitize the apparatus and our EMS units. And, on a daily basis, departments were sharing, via the Internet, their ideas, programs, cleaning solutions, and application procedures to help each other work to find the best way to achieve this cleaning and sanitizing. They varied on the mixture of the cleaning solutions and the amounts used to achieve the goal. What was even more interesting was the ingenious ways the fire service found to apply the solution to our apparatus and ambulances. They ranged from store-bought applicators from the local and chain hardware stores to the modification of products in the fire service to make the application more robust and quicker to apply.
Cleaning Caused Damage
As we worked through the process and applications, it was obvious the damage we were doing to the apparatus and vehicle interiors and components in these units. This included any plastic that might be in the cab, electronics, and porous fabrics and cushions we used for seating—not to mention, but often not spoken about, the possible damage we may have done to our personnel with their constant exposure to all these cleaning and sanitizing products on a daily basis. Changes needed to be made as we worked through the pandemic, and across the country departments reached out to manufacturers and vendors for better solutions to help in this process.
The Starting Point
Expanding on the clean cab concept was a start for this process, as it related to what we were doing with the interiors of our apparatus. Removing porous seating materials and cab linings started this movement. Now we had to remove as many plastics from the cab to stop the degradation of the plastics as they were barraged with the harsh cleaning solutions every day. As we all know, if the correct solution is a precise ratio, then as firefighters we are always going to beef it up some more to make the cleaning even better. This increased and accelerated the breakdown of the plastic in the cabs, leaving behind a destroyed interior and the future replacement of these interiors because of looks and a breakdown in the plastic’s ability to protect the interior of the cab. Many manufacturers had started with the hardening of their cabs for the clean cab concept. This new crisis with the pandemic forced the balance of the manufacturers to figure out a way to prevent the spread of the virus and to allow for a rigid cleaning schedule to take place. Many of them redesigned the cab interiors as an option to be more hardened and less susceptible to harsh cleaning agents.
Assessing Damage
As we slowing move away from the pandemic, it will be very interesting to see how many repairs and how much out-of-service time will be attributed to the damage of electrical components from our cleaning and disinfecting processes. The vast majority of the components in a fire apparatus cab or our EMS units were not designed to take this daily, if not hourly, barrage of cleaning chemicals and sanitizing.
I know first-hand we have had to replace a large number of stretcher system parts/motors along with a host of switches and components that normally would not need to be replaced this early into their life cycles, mainly from the moisture and direct contact with the cleaning process caused by the crisis.
The manufacturers of these items deserve a lot of credit, as some of them stuck behind their product even though it was not designed to take this abuse/cleaning regimen over this amount of time. They replaced parts and pieces under warranty even though they did not have to. They earned respect in that fact that they understood the problem and worked to assist departments to keep units in service and available for the public during the pandemic.
Innovative Ideas
The crisis forced departments to look for new ways to achieve the demands of the cleaning daily and after each call. One of the products that stood out was the Aeroclave machine. This stand-alone cleaning machine required the end user to add a premixed solution to the machine. Depending on the size of the area that needed cleaning, it would disperse the solution through a fixed nozzle to that area with the right amount of solution, taking the guessing out of the process. The unit also has a feature so the nozzles could be permanently mounted in apparatus and ambulances and the machine could be hooked into a port to disperse the cleaning solution while the unit sat outside of the vehicle. Aeroclave was a company that stood behind its product during the pandemic. When it was used way more than it was designed to be used, the company stood behind its warranty even after the terms had expired. Some other advances that should be looked at are the active air purification systems with integrated HEPA filters and the use of antimicrobial lighting. I have no personal experience with them, but my department has started researching them for possible future use in our apparatus and EMS units.
We have outlined a number of ideas, processes, and designs to help departments moving forward as they deal with the cleaning and sanitizing of their apparatus and EMS units:
- Material in the cab, crew, and patient areas should be nonporous and easily cleanable.
- Dash and flat surfaces in the same areas should be designed to take the punishment of constant cleaning.
- Reduce plastics in these areas as much as possible.
- Make floors easy to clean without lip areas and corners that will trap dirt and moisture.
- Identify the location of sensitive electronic devices that could be damaged by the cleaning process.
- Use premixed cleaning solutions.
- Use application devices that are not overly powerful that could force cleaning solutions into areas of our units that are not designed to handle the solution and moisture.
- Educate yourself on any products that can make the cleaning process easier and simple for field personnel.
The cleaning and sanitizing regimen is not going away anytime soon. So, constantly push your manufacturers for any design or production processes that can help you achieve this safety goal for your personnel. Look across the country and at many departments’ processes and styles of cleaning to make sure we are all doing the best job possible.
RICKY RILEY is the president of Traditions Training, LLC. He previously served as the operations chief for Clearwater (FL) Fire & Rescue and as a firefighter for Fairfax County (VA) Fire & Rescue. He also is a firefighter with the Kentland (MD) Volunteer Fire Department and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board.
