Published on May 29, 2020
Menlo Park Fire Protection District
COVID 19 – Pandemic Update – By the numbers!
Two months after the County Health Officials Initial Shelter in Place Order – Local Firefighters have responded to over 100 potential COVID 19 screened medical incidents
Engineer/Paramedic Travis Hooper shows the changes and evolution to the Fire Districts COVID 19 response safety equipment, or personal protective equipment (PPE) that included the removable of the cartridge filter and addition of the voice modular (left side) and a hose that goes to a pump and filter system all used to protect the Firefighters who are specifically responding to potential COVID 19 emergency medical incidents. All of the equipment is decontaminated after each response and is re-usable for repetitive and consistent use - Credit Menlo Fire
The Menlo Park Fire Protection District provides critical fire and emergency services to its areas in the Town of Atherton, Cities of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, unincorporated San Mateo County and the SLAC National Accelerator and Laboratories. The Fire District has lead the way on the front lines in trying to slow or stop the spread of the virus by carefully and creatively keeping the public and fire personnel as protected as possible from exposure when they respond to people who are screened through the 911 emergency fire dispatch system as possibly having COVID-19.
Two months after the San Mateo County Health Officer advised the public that a mandatory shelter in place order went into effective on March 17, 2020, the Fire District’s two person specialized Pandemic Medical Response Unit that was specifically placed in service on March 21, 2020, responded to its 100th CV-19 medical emergency call on May 18, 2020. Out of the 100 responses, roughly 20%, or one in five patients seen by the Firefighters have been reported as later testing positive for COVID 19.
District wide, in that same period of time, Firefighters responded to 685 emergency medical incidents of which the 100 CV-19 responses represented 15% of the total emergency medical response call volume. With so many people staying at home, the Fire District also experienced an overall emergency call volume decrease of 25% compared to last year. While the number of fire responses remained the same at 38, as did service calls at 200 responses, over the two months, medical incidents dropped by 30%, false alarms by 42%, and good intent calls by 16%.
Emergency medical incidents in the City of East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Unincorporated San Mateo County (North Fair Oaks) each represented 1/3 of the 100 potential CV-19 responses. However, East Palo Alto had almost half of all the patients who later tested positive for the virus with Menlo Park and Unincorporated San Mateo County each at ¼ of the nearly 20 positive tested cases. Using the County Health Departments Zip Code data related to the 1687 positive cases at the time, the Town of Atherton showed 12 resident cases, the City of East Palo Alto had 56 resident cases and the City Menlo Park had 59 resident cases. The Unincorporated County Areas in the Fire District, like North Fair Oaks, were not able to be determined using available zip code data.
Fire Chief Schapelhouman said “Overall, the number of COVID-19 suspected responses are well below not only what we anticipated, but what we were prepared for and I’m very thankful for that. We also haven’t had a firefighter exposure incident since we put the Pandemic Medical Response Unit in Service and enhanced our firefighters operational PPE level, safety equipment and decontamination/sanitation procedures. We also looked at our two month sample data set specifically for suicide incidents and fortunately found none but we did find that over 4% of all of the 685 emergency medical incident responses District wide over the last two months, were for patients experiencing “anxiety” specifically related to the pandemic and better clinically described by our Fire Paramedics as a “behavioral crisis/psychiatric primary impression with many people saying that anxiety, agitation or depression were directly caused by COVID 19. What does it all mean in the big picture of things, its still hard to say, but it is a snap shot in time with what data we have from our front line responders.”
Since May 17, 2020, over the Memorial Day Holiday and through today, the Fire District has started to see emergency call volumes begin to climb again as more people are getting out and about and some businesses are starting to open up again. We have also be tracking “encampment fires” and other calls for service in these camps where we have responded to the same areas, or camps, almost 100 times over the last three years. We are working on that data now as we have recently responded to four fires in nine days in the area known as the Triangle, along the Bayfront Expressway.
For updates on local community impacts and emergency operations, please go to our web-site at www.menlofire.org: or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Next Door. This Community information “Dash Board” was specifically established to keep you in the local loop, because local information seems to be in short supply at times, but is critical to you, your families, friends and overall community well-being!
Engineer/Paramedic Travis Hooper and the Fire District are ready to respond - Credit Menlo Fire
Please contact me with any questions at 650-380-1006.
Adapt, Improvise, Overcome and Innovate!