Time to rewrite firefighting SOPs for hospitals, say experts

A day after the Mumbai Fire Chief tested positive for coronavirus and was hospitalised health experts said that the recent firefighting and rescue at Bhanduprsquos Dreams the Mall should be a learning lesson for the state administration to come up with appropriate measures to ensure safety of the firemen police and others who had come in direct contact with over 70 COVID patients as they are the first responders to any emergency callIn its article lsquoBhandup mall fire fighters at Covid riskrsquo dated April 2 midday had highlighted the vulnerability of 30plus firemen and rescue teams who shifted COVID patients from Sunrise Hospital to safety wearing only PPE kits on March 25 Experts say such PPE kits are not made of fireretardant materials and pose more risksKailash Hiwrale 58 the Mumbai Fire Brigade chief was at the helm of the operation at Dreams the Mall He was feeling unwell in the last two to three days and had chest congestion due to excessive smoke inhalation Sources at Nanavati Hospital said Hiwrale was brought in minutes before midnight on March 31 Being a known case of hypertension and diabetes he was admitted in lsquoCrsquo wing COVID ward bed no 346 and was provided with a litre of external oxygen supply to maintain his oxygen saturation level A RTPCR test showed he was positiveOn Friday the fire chief was feeling much better and the external oxygen support was also removed His oxygen saturation level was between 9697 per cent and all his vitals were fine He will be in the hospital for some days before undergoing another RTPCR test Once the report comes negative he will be discharged said a hospital sourceThe Byculla firemen officersrsquo residential quarters has a 20bed quarantine centre A few family members of firefighters too have tested positive and are in home isolation for the past few days said a civic official The firefighters involved in the Bhandup operation have been directed by Additional Commissioner Health Suresh Kakani to look for any symptoms So far nobody other than Hiwrale has tested positiveDr Subhash Hira Professor of Global Health at the University of WashingtonSeattle said ldquoThe second wave of COVID19 has shown rapid spread due to a high proportion of variants The biological formula namely SARSCOV2 spread rate R0Bcd has reached 16 in several states of India This means each fireman or rescue personnel who went inandout of the Sunrise COVID Hospital and got exposed to SARSCOV2 is likely to spread infection to 16 persons That is one of the reasons that it is expected that the second wave will likely be longer and will have a larger number of people infected including higher deathsrdquoDr Hira echoed concerns over nonusage of containment vans for decontaminating firemen and their tools He added ldquoIn the wake of the pandemic firefighting protocols for hospitals need to be rewritten to ensure that lsquocontainment vansrsquo are made available whenever fire outbreaks occur in a hospital and the firefighting squad on the front line have completed their full doses of vaccine and are free of comorbidities Moreover their PPE dresses need to be redesigned with impermeable material to prevent them getting wetrdquoDr Wiqar Shaikh Professor of Medicine Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals said the entire team of firemen police sent to the Bhandup mall should have undergone decontamination in a van and later COVIDtested and quarantinedHe lamented that the absence of a decontamination van could make the fire incident a super spreader for COVID19 He expressed disappointment saying when crores of rupees are being spent on hitech firefighting equipment a much cheaper and effective decontamination van would have helped in scientifically controlling the spread of the virusDr Shaikh questioned why the governmentrsquos decontamination van should be reserved only for incidents like a nuclear attack He said firemen and cops who are above 50 years of age and are comorbid should be exempted from entering fire premises and should be proactive in directing operations from the outside ldquoAuthorities should do their homework and prepare an action plan for such disasters especially in view of the ongoing pandemicrdquo he added30 No of firemen cops involved in rescue at Sunrise Hospital