South Galveston News

First responders in Galveston County are having to expose themselves to the coronavirus and – according to the county's Health District – they are more likely to be infected with the virus than other residents. 

League City Fire Chief Gary Warren said the dangers of his job don't normally follow him back home. But with the coronavirus circulating, members of the fire department and other first responders are having to expose themselves to the virus to do their job, according to the Daily News. 

“It’s a little different, because the kind of danger we go into doesn’t usually follow us back to the station,” Warren said. 

He was among 12 members of the League City Fire Department that had to self-isolate after five members of the department were confirmed to have the virus. Warren told the Daily News that he wasn't diagnosed with COVID-19 and felt fine. 

Other fire departments in the county are making necessary changes to protect their members from COVID-19, the Daily News reported. Fire Chief David Zacherl in Texas City said he had changed his station's protocol four or five times in three weeks. 

Zacherl told the Daily News the fire department is screening patients, employees and each other for a fever as a precaution. But if a member of the department were to test positive for COVID-19, Zacherl and Galveston Fire Chief Charles Olson said they wouldn't know where to put that member to safely self-isolate. 

“The biggest problem we have is if we do have to isolate people, we have to find a place to isolate them to,” Zacherl told the Daily News. “If I have to isolate a firefighter, their home situation is not a safe place for them to be. Where do you go?”

Galveston County Local Health Authority Philip Keiser told the Daily News the number of cases in first responders is concerning. 

“There is a disproportionate amount of first responders and hospital workers,” Keiser said. 

As of April 12, Texas reported 13,484 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 271 deaths. Galveston County has 355 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Many of those confirmed cases in Galveston County are health care workers and first responders. According to the Daily News, many first responders contract the virus due to the lack of personal protective equipment.

“Some have PPEs. Some don’t have PPEs," Keiser told the Daily News. "Some have had good training with it. Some people have made mistakes. Some of those people got it outside their job. That’s the thing we have to keep in mind. Just because someone has it, doesn’t mean they got it directly because of their job. But if we see a disproportionate amount of the front-line people getting it, that tells us that there’s something going on.”