GILROY
– Starting next month the Gilroy Fire Department will raise the
bar in its defense against possible threats of bio-terrorism by
giving voluntary inoculation shots to its firefighters.
GILROY – Starting next month the Gilroy Fire Department will raise the bar in its defense against possible threats of bio-terrorism by giving voluntary inoculation shots to its firefighters.
Gilroy itself is not considered a possible target of terrorist attacks, but due to the department’s participation in a countywide mutual response plan, local firefighters will have an opportunity to receive small pox and anthrax vaccines, GFD Chief Jeff Clet said.
“We’ve been giving (the firefighters) quite a bit of information about the vaccines – their benefits and risks,” said Clet, who will likely volunteer for the vaccines. “We are part of a response team for a metropolitan area (San Jose) designated by (The Office of) Homeland Security as a possible terrorist target, so we want to be prepared.”
Clet said the plan is part of a recommendation for all “first response” agencies in the county to receive the inoculations, including fire, police and paramedic personnel; several hospital and medical workers in the county already have received the shots as mandated by the Office of Homeland Security and others are scheduled for the vaccines in the coming weeks.
A Gilroy Police Department spokesperson said the department has not received any information from the county about the inoculation program scheduled for April, and officials at local ambulance provider American Medical Response could not be reached for comment.
Apart from the inoculations, a handful of Gilroy firefighters also will participate in a training program designed by the International Association of Firefighters to develop skills in responding to bio-terrorism.
The day-long course will take place in April at the California Department of Fire Protection facility in Morgan Hill.
“We will send three firefighters to the training, and they will return to train the rest (of the department’s firefighters),” Clet said. “They are calling it Terrorism Specific Training.”
In the coming months, the GFD will continue to institute several other recommendations from the Office of Homeland Security that could help the department during a terrorism threat, including the addition of bio-chemical antidotes to its medical kits, but Clet would not divulge any more details.
“Homeland Security is warning us not to release too much information,” Clet said. “Right now we are trying to obtain as much information as possible in order to prepare to the best of our ability.”
GFD Division Chief Phil King, who oversees the department’s Emergency Medical Services, said the important thing in battling bio-terrorism is that the firefighters use their training to determine the severity of any chemical attack.
With the core of their emergency response training already behind it, the GFD will now focus continuing to improve their response and adapt to changing threat of terror, King said.
“Right now our training is more related to recognizing HAZMAT (hazardous materials) so we can determine what to do from there,” King said. “A lot of our training also focuses on making sure we know what not to do in certain situations.”
