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1. What is COVID-19?

According to the CDC, A novel coronavirus is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified. The virus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is not the same as the coronaviruses that commonly circulate among humans and cause mild illness, like the common cold.

A diagnosis with coronavirus 229E, NL63, OC43, or HKU1 is not the same as a COVID-19 diagnosis. Patients with COVID-19 will be evaluated and cared for differently than patients with common coronavirus diagnosis.

2. What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

Reported illnesses have ranged from mild symptoms to severe illness and death for confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.

The following symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure.

• Fever
• Cough
• Shortness of breath

3. Who are the people at high-risk?

According to the CDC, early information out of China, where COVID-19 first started, shows that some people are at higher risk of getting very sick from this illness. This includes:

• Older adults
• People who have serious chronic medical conditions like:
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Lung disease
  

4. General preventative measures for the public?

The best course of action to combat the COVID-19 virus is to follow the CDC’s recommendations for prevention, which can be found here. This includes:

• Washing Hands.  It’s important to wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.
• Clean and Disinfect Frequently: Clean your working area, and other frequently touched objects and surfaces with cleaning sprays or wipes.
• Avoid Touching Eyes, Nose and Mouth: If you can, please avoid touching your face as much as possible.
• Stay Home if You Are Feeling Sick: If you are feeling ill, take similar precautions that you would with any other sickness and please stay home.

5. What is South Metro doing for preventive measures?

South Metro Fire Rescue continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation to ensure that the safety and preventative measures to limit exposure to our personnel and citizens is our top priority. 

We know it’s a very fluid situation that has been evolving daily. South Metro is proactively taking heightened precautions for our personnel and staff at this time, including:

• Closing SMFR admin building to non-essential personnel until April 3^rd (or until further notice).
  
• South Metro Fire Chief Baker signed a disaster declaration.  By implementing a local disaster emergency declaration, the Fire Chief has increased authority to activate the necessary response and recovery aspects of any and all applicable local and inter-jurisdictional disaster emergency plans and have emergency funding as needed. To read the full disaster declaration, click here
  
  
• MetCom (South Metro Fire Rescue’s dispatch center) is actively monitoring if a patient calls and states they have similar symptoms to that of the COVID-19.  Most patients with confirmed COVID-19 have developed fever and/or symptoms of acute respiratory illness (e.g., cough, difficulty breathing, fever).
  
  
• If Metcom determines that a scene may have someone with these symptoms, they will advise crews that they should wear appropriate PPE before entering the scene. This includes wearing gloves, mask, eyewear and gown.
  
  
• South Metro has determined that we will be rescheduling all station tours, engine demos and ride-a-longs, community events and public education classes to a later date to minimize exposure. We do remain committed to our citizens, however, and will work with them to ensure that we reschedule any event, tour, demo, etc. to a later time.
  
  
• Operations is also actively working with our crews on additional protocols for limiting exposure as well, including having a dedicated Decon Unit to help decontaminate medic units if there is a known risk of transport

6. Are events/station tours/engine demos/etc. affected?

South Metro has determined that we will be rescheduling all station tours, engine demos and ride- a- longs, community events and public education classes to a later date to minimize exposure. We do remain committed to our citizens, however, and will work with them to ensure that we reschedule any event, tour, demo, etc. to a later time.

7. What happens if our crews are exposed to COVID-19?

If our crews are affected, we will take the necessary steps and recommendations from the CDC to see if any of our crews are high or low risk of exposure and monitor them as needed.

8. Is the South Metro Fire Rescue’s Fire Marshal’s Office Continuing to Operate During COVID-19 Pandemic?

Although the South Metro Fire Rescue administration office has been temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Metro Fire Marshal’s Office continues to be committed to protecting the lives and property of our community during this time. The Fire Marshal’s office will continue to operate and provide services to the community – with some alternations to business operations.  This includes:

• The Development and Construction team continuing to conduct plan reviews, issuing permits, and conducting field inspections via South Metro’s normal processes. All members can still be reached by email and phone, as they normally would, and we even have some options to conduct virtual meetings with customers needing some additional assistance with their projects. There may be some slight disruptions to services that inherently come with team members working remotely, but South Metro is striving to limit any diminished services. However, this is a dynamic situation and future decisions may be made to limit exposure of South Metro personnel and the community.
  
  
• South Metro has temporarily suspended code compliance (existing building) inspections. However, the Fire Marshal’s Office will still investigate any code compliance complaints/concerns any of our operations personnel or community members identify. If you have any questions pertaining to routine fire and life safety systems inspection, maintenance, and testing (ITM) processes while balancing COVID-19 concerns, please contact the South Metro Fire Marshal’s Office for guidance. Each case is different, and our team members will be happy to assist with navigating you through next steps.
  
  
• South Metro Fire Rescue’s investigations unit is staffed normally and will respond to all calls for service. We are still processing open records requests for incident, property assessments, and investigation reports through our normal means via our website request form (https://www.southmetro.org/467/Open-Records-Requests).

If you have any questions or concerns for the Fire Marshal’s Office, please contact our office at 720-989.2230 and a team member will be back in touch with you as soon as possible.

 

9. Should I still call 911 if I have symptoms similar to that of COVID-19?

South Metro’s mission is to serve our citizens and we will continue to be there for you.  We do ask, however, during this time that if you have non-life-threatening flu-like symptoms to please contact your primary care physician (PCP) prior to calling 911.