Several requests have come into the Fire Department for a fire truck to drive by homes for birthdays, anniversaries and so on. As much as our volunteer’s love being out in the public, after careful consideration I must respectfully decline any requests of this nature at this time for the safety of our volunteers. Our primary focus is staying healthy to answer the calls for service we receive for you – our community. We have taken every precaution to minimize the chance of exposure to the fire fighters and in turn, their families. Having COVID exposure in the Fire Department could potentially reduce our ability or worse, leave us unable to answer those calls for service when you need us the most. Recently at a nearby station, an exposure quarantined 22 members of the department. That kind of exposure is what we are working to avoid. Due to our close quarters in the apparatus and while working on a scene, we have to use precautions every day and this includes non-essential details and requests like described above.

To date we have been able to stay at full staff and answer every call to 9-1-1. We have made many modifications to our standard operating guidelines (SOG’s) to ensure we are taking every precaution. We have invested in decontamination equipment and of course extra personal protective equipment (PPE) for the fire fighters. We have new procedures in place for responses, decontamination for the fire fighters, equipment and the apparatus. Our weekly trainings and all our meetings have moved to the virtual environment just like the rest of the Country right now. Our upcoming events like the Comedy Show and the Carnival have been postponed and we are discussing our Annual Golf Outing in early June and the Annual Youth Fire Camp at the end of June to see if we can have them or not this year. Many moving targets with everything going on but we need to focus on our first and foremost mission, serving you.

We look forward to getting back out there and seeing everyone again as soon as this pandemic is over and fulfill as many of these requests as we can. Please don’t hesitate to call 9-1-1 for any emergency and please know we will be there for you.

We wish you and your family well and that you stay healthy and safe.

Any questions, please feel free to email me at Chief@LFD51.org or call the office at 610-489-2222

Sincerely,
Ken Shuler, Chief