ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — With a red flag warning in effect in parts of our state, first responders are ready to serve our communities when the call comes in.
South Metro Fire Rescue (SMFR) EMS battalion chief, Brian McCoy, has worked for the agency for 23 years. While it may be hot outside, McCoy has a cooler in his truck that he is monitoring with red blood cells inside.
Watch Denver7 reporter Maggy Wolanske's report in the video below:
"Seeing somebody who's bleeding to death wake up literally on the way to the hospital because we gave them blood and be able to get to an emergency operating room alive, as opposed to in cardiac arrest, has been a game changer. It's hard to describe how impactful it is, and it's critical for this to stay cold. We rotate a cooler out every 24 hours," McCoy said.
Not only is McCoy ready to answer the call for help, but he also provided perspective on checking in with firefighters during these extreme heat days.
"You're working harder because you're carrying a lot of extra weight, but then you still feel the heat of the fire, so you're taking on that heat if you're inside there, and then your body heat is also not going anywhere," explained McCoy. "So, when you come out in that gear, you potentially feel like you have a fever. Your temperature can be above 100 degrees and we've got a cool you down, so heat stroke is a concern for us."
While McCoy is prepared, there is another source of support in the firefighting district. SMFR has a logistics team ready to help crews in need of extra firefighting supplies or necessities like snacks and water.
SMFR logistics director, Spencer Luft, explained they are ready to provide all sorts of tools and gear as needed across the district. This year, the logistics team repurposed a dive truck to be able to transport supplies to a scene in a quick manner.
"It's an incident support truck and we keep extra water. We keep a little bit of food, some snacks, granola that kind of stuff," said Luft. "We keep extra hoses, we keep a few extra bottles. We keep blankets, kind of anything you can think of you might need on an incident for anybody involved, just to keep things going and smooth and try to keep people as comfortable as possible whether it's warm or cold out."
SMFR serves Araphoe, Douglas and Jefferson counties with the logistics crew responding to a call when incident command requests their help. Luft explained his team typically responds to a request once a week. Some situations include multiple emergencies happening throughout a day or a fire burning for multiple hours.
"We come into the incident and we will restock the units on scene so they don't have to go back to the station," said Luft. "Then we bring it to them at the station. We try to restock them on the scene."
Whether it is rain or shine, these first responders are ready to serve when the call comes through.
"We put a lot of effort in to make sure that we are able to do our job just as good on a 60-degree day as a 90-degree day. It's all about the citizens serving our community and being prepared and if we have to go do some extra things to make sure we're safe, that effort translates into everybody else's safe," McCoy said.
