By Greg Ellison

(July 9, 2020) The Ocean Pines Volunteer Fire Department continues to face staffing and operational obstacles because of demographics, training requirements and covid-19.

Career Capt. Harvey Booth said the fire department has adhered to coronavirus-related health protocols issued by the Center for Disease Control and the Maryland Institute of Emergency Medical System.

“Between the CDC and MIEMS they said, ‘When you come to work … if you have any symptoms, don’t come to work,” he said.

Booth said ill fire fighters are advised to contact a supervisor in lieu of reporting for duty, with members not experiencing symptoms required to perform temperature checks upon arrival. Temperatures are monitored twice more during shifts.

The lobal health challenge has also placed a newfound importance on personal protective equipment.

“We [previously] only ever wore a N-95, or a mask at all many times, if we had a patient we suspected of having tuberculosis or if we … were going to spray blood all over ourselves,” he said. “Now on every single call we are making sure we wear a mask.”

While fire and EMS members have traditionally donned gloves on calls, masks and gowns were not typically in the mix.

“We rarely wore masks but we really were careful about protecting our eyes,” he said.

Booth said those approaches have been overhauled since the onset of covid-19 earlier this year.

“When we first started, we had some N-95 masks on the ambulance that we had in the closet forever,” he said. “We very quickly ran through those and couldn’t get more so we struggled.”

With increased knowledge of virus protocols, Booth has opted for selective use of N-95 apparatus.

“Instead of wearing a N-95 mask on every call, I wear a surgical mask, unless I’m going to create a problem for myself, ” he said.

While prepared to employ a N-95 mask if deemed appropriate, Booth said surgical masks cost less and are easier to acquire.

“We will always wear a mask on every single call,” he said.

Both also credited Royal Plus Electric Owner Mark Odachowski for recently donating helmet-style face shields to the Ocean Pines Fire Department.

“We have enough for all our guys,” he said.

Booth said fire responses, while still rapid, now involve an extra degree of caution.

“If we do have a patient who is suspicious, we put on a gown before we go in their house,” he said. “We used to rush right in … but now we stop at the front door and say, ‘What’s going on, who’s in here, what symptoms do you have or do you have a fever.”

Booth said a slowed approach is the essential operational adjustment.

“We are just much, much more cautious about protecting ourselves, and our crew then we were in the past,” he said.

Besides current coronavirus considerations for fire department operations, President Dave Van Gasbeck said retaining the current crew of 50 volunteers and roughly a dozen full- and part-time firefighter or paramedics remains a challenge.

“About 38 percent of people in the community are above 65 and firefighting … is obviously a young person’s business,” he said.

Attracting volunteers under the age of 50 has traditionally proven difficult in Ocean Pines.

“We have challenges getting younger people in,” he said. “The biggest is people from their 30s to 50s because they’re the ones that are raising a family and doing the parental taxicab stuff.”

The department has several classifications for volunteers: firefighters who must be full-time Pines residents and over 18 years of age; associates from other emergency organizations in the area; administrative positions open to anyone with free time to support operations; and a cadet program for youths ages 14-18 with parental permission.

“There are fewer and fewer volunteer EMS people,” Booth said. “Our company has career people … we’re the leader but we do have [volunteers] that come in and help us.”

In recent years, volunteer ranks have declined, partly because of increased training requirements.

“There are fewer and fewer because the training has gotten difficult,” he said. “I’m the longest-tenured career person in the Ocean Pines Fire Department [and] when I took EMT back in 1984 the program was 81 hours.”

EMT instructional textbooks, which were under 400 pages when Booth joined the department, have subsequently grown to roughly 1,600 pages.

“When they did that they made the EMS program much harder and longer,” he said. “It’s written at a college level and a lot of folks who get into fire and EMS are not graduates from Harvard.”

Booth said the federal government established national standards for emergency responders roughly a decade ago to unify disaster responses among states.

“Maryland tried to make a 250-hour program into 165 hours,” he said. “For a number of years they’ve smashed that curriculum [but] now there’s a pilot in Maryland that’s going to be taught this fall that’s 225 hours.”

Booth, who also serves as lead instructor for EMS volunteers, said classes typically start out with up to 28 students.

“Only about 10 of them get through because it’s so much work,” he said. “It’s a challenge for them because the course is long.”

Many would-be volunteers have difficulty balancing family and career duties with the desire to serve the community.

“A lot of people get in, but they have families, or other jobs,” he said. “It’s very time-consuming just to get started,” he said. “They’re good hearted people that want to do the job but it’s really hard for them.”

Booth also stressed the importance of retaining volunteers who successfully navigate training regimens.

“When they finally get through, hang onto those people,” he said. “Unless it’s your passion, [and] in your heart ‘that’s what I want to do,’ it’s hard to hold onto people.”