America is the “Land of the free”, at least that’s the claim. If you want the vaccine or to mask cool, because it works right? No one is stopping anyone from taking measures to protect themselves if they feel they need it. I have my beliefs, but what is reality? A virus will run its course.
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100%. If you’re scared do everything advised. If not, it’s fire season. Do the do.
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Scared is inflammatory and that’s not my point. Concern is relative to everyone and their current situation. Point being the “facts” have been put forth. Let each individual make their decision.
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Agreed, this is about how it is effecting fires. I know the last 2 large fires we had a lot of cases. It didn’t effect operations, but just add an extra layer of stress to the incident. What I find weird, is how last year we made hardly any cases, now it is a completely different story.
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Here is what I’d like to know:
Without getting political
How will the “likely” coming of state requirement of mandatory vaccinations for government employees affect resource allocation? Many do not want to get a rushed mRNA vaccine that doesn’t prevent the disease and has proven severe side affects.
It seems like a catastrophe in the making if that route is taken and we get a big wind event or lightning burst in the next couple of months.
Already staffing issues and there is also another aspect to think of that has affected the airline industry… pilots
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It has affected operations. A contract crew was sent home from Beckwourth on their 3rd day because they had a couple guys who were mildly sick. The entire crew PASSED covid tests but were sent home anyway. Maybe they able to replace the crew, but it still was an issue and caused a disruption in the flow of the incident.
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If that happens the staffing shortage we have now will look small in comparison because there will a lot of people saying see ya.
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So it was well into the winter before I found out there were well over 200 Coronavirus incidences on fires last summer. Turns out, several modules in divisions I worked didn’t time out or get reassigned. The official claim was privacy, but I’m inclined to believe agency managers used that opacity to minimize panic, especially among local communities.
Combine increased awareness and the wider availabilty of rapid-testing, and I believe we’re hearing about cases more this year; I’m not inclined to believe there’s neccesarily a quantitative increase.
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And I understand how alot of you folks are sick of talking about this virus, I am too, but these upcoming “mandates” are going to put quite a spin on operations. Better to talk things out ahead of time, even if the conversations aren’t pretty.
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I agree Seth. But today’s initial attempt at that; as aj said, wasn’t to productive.
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If you get two, three, or more crews that get sent home that affects everything from crew rest, how big that box is going to be, and interaction with the community. Using my department as an example of what can happen if guys don’t take precautions with any kind of concern, we had 7 parks in our district being “maintained” by 1 guy for nearly a month and 25 people out because they either had covid or had a workplace exposure, 8 of them were hospitalized. We had 2 guys at our park get it one got mildly sick and they got it arresting someone. As for me I have an immune system like a volcanic pit, driving a porta potty rig Exposed me to many things. Do I wear a mask? Only when needed. I got vaccinated because I saw what was coming for California state workers six months ago. If you don’t want to wear a mask or get a shot I don’t care but if you’re sitting in community meeting or briefing and opt to not wear a mask remember you represent the agency you work for and if you get kicked off the incident that’s on you but it effects everyone else.
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Ok enough. We let this run for a while hoping it would self regulate but that is not happening, So……here is the topic for discussion;
Jun '20
Question and discussion time. How will Covid 19 impact and affect the way we manage large campaign fires this season?
Base
Camp
Sleep trailers
Meal halls
New policies
Check in procedures
Etc
Anything regarding the origin, who should and shouldn’t, or any unsubstantiated claims of validity will be deleted and a warning issued. Stay on topic.
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I haven’t been on an incident this year. Are they using sleep trailers? Is OES putting local resources up in hotels?
Nope…. Tent or sleepers
PN Mod, I probably shouldn’t have opened this box yesterday. So I will just ask this question directly PN and either why you decide is fine. Myself and others do get official notifications of positives and ongoing quarantines at various units and on wildfires. Do you want to have this posted in your forum for awareness? No names, no firefighter resource identifiers, just unit/incident names and numbers? Either way you decide is fine with me.
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Not sure I recall OES ever paying for hotels. This descion is made by the contracting Agency paying the bills.
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Here is the COVID-19 guidance from NWCG updated July 202. Guidance for Prevention and Management of COVID-19 During Wildland Fire Operations | NWCG.pdf (177.8 KB)
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On the River we put every one other than orange firefighters in motels.
Including LG and Feds
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I went through and deleted a majority of what was written in this thread. I do not have time to write everyone who had a post deleted. Some were deleted because they were a reply to a deleted thread, and not because of content. Please stay on topic and see the post by @Play_Nice_Mod
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On the River Fire it was motels. The Tamarack was cots in the parking lot of the high school even in the rain. I don’t know if this was a penny pincher decision or a COVID decision, The Dixie there was a MASSIVE amount of sleepers with one strike team per trailer.