Jim Lee

 The professional firefighter’s union is calling for a uniform “tool kit” for H1N1 preparedness for firefighters across the country.

Jim Lee, the assistant to the general president for Canadian operations with the International Association of Fire Fighters, says the H1N1 influenza A pandemic is a great lesson waiting to be learned.

Lee was a firefighter in Toronto for 33 years and he says the association has found the response to the H1N1 influenza A to be different across the country, but firefighters are doing pretty much the same job everywhere.

“A lot of people don’t understand what we do as firefighters in that the vast majority of our calls are medical-related,” Lee said. “We think, rather than have this patchwork system of protection we should have a tool kit.”

What he wants is for all first responders to be considered a priority for innoculation, the use of more advanced respirator masks and access to antivirals in the event of exposure to illness.

The current mask used is not oil resistant and stops 95 per cent of particles. The next level respirator is oil resistant and stops 99.97 per cent of particles.

In the western Newfoundland area, he said firefighters thought they were on a priority list to receive H1N1 vaccine and were surprised when they found out they weren’t on the list.
Lee says that could have been a major problem.

“I think we’re lucky this was a mild pandemic,” Lee said. “Scientists are telling us there are going to be other pandemics and they could be moderate or severe, and we should be sitting down with all levels of government and looking at what went right and what went wrong, and we should be better prepared for the next pandemic.”

Next time he wants the tool kit in place and he wants government to recognize the critical place first responders, such as paramedics, firefighters and police occupy.

Deputy Chief Bill Griffin of the Corner Brook Fire Department said he and his co-workers are puzzled by being left off the vaccine priority list.

All the health workers at Western Memorial Regional Hospital were offered vaccine and, according to Griffin, contractors working in the hospital on a regular basis were given the swine flu shot, while security guards were stationed at all entrances keeping the general public out of the facility.

Meanwhile firefighters were in the queue with the general population and when the alarm at the hospital sounded — more than once, he says — firefighters had to go into the hospital and find out what happened.

“At times the hospital was pretty much in shutdown mode,” Griffin said.” Anybody that went in on a regular basis was vaccinated, and that makes sense, so they should be.
“What about us? If the alarms goes off, we have to roll our trucks over there and we have to go in. It’s a scratch-your-head kind of thing.”

Luckily there was no noticeable rise in absenteeism at the department, Griffin said.

“We’ve been quite fortunate, actually. There’s been nothing out of the ordinary, but we didn’t know what to expect.”