Health officials are investigating an incident within an incident on the Red Rock fire 25 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada.
From RGJ.com:
Washoe County health officials said Tuesday they are investigating 24 fire personnel who contracted a gastrointestinal illness while fighting the Red Rock Fire north of Reno.
Eighteen firefighters and six contracted staff members became ill, the first being reported Friday, said Judy Davis, public information officer for the Washoe District Health Department. They reported nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Most have been seen by physicians, and none were hospitalized, Davis said.
Officials said they do not know where the illness came from, and an investigation is continuing.
Davis said health officials spoke with the fire incident commander and would have asked those who became ill to discard any shared bedding or other equipment they might have soiled but were told firefighters were not sharing their possessions.
“If you bring people together outdoors and they don’t have appropriate hand-washing facilities or food preparation and storage, that may spread any illness, but there have been advances in outdoor firefighting that have made (such widespread illness) less frequent,” Davis said.
The firefighters reported mild to moderate symptoms, she said. If the illness proves to be norovirus, which causes acute gastroenteritis in humans according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washoe health officials will continue to advise those who are ill to stay home for 72 hours after symptoms go away.
The Red Rock fire has burned 10,549 acres and is 90% contained, according to InciWeb, which was last updated on July 20.
There are some great comments in this thread, along with some good ideas for improving the hygiene of firefighters and the conditions at fire camp. Facilities Unit Leaders and Food Unit Leaders take note. Thanks everybody!
eric-you are missing my point. The firefighters in this case-Red Rock and Trailer 1 Fires-are not at fault. The caterer was the source of the virus/germ. Fire camps are not sterile labs. I know this. A good way to stop the spread of germs in camp would be to issue HEPA filter masks and sterile gloves. Is it guaranteed to work? I dunno. BTW, Whalen’s medical unit leader stood up at briefing and said people were coming into the med unit with symptoms of dehydration. she is an idiot.
Rob and Riley both make some excellent points. I totally agree that if we are to enforce hygiene, people shouldn’t be punished (i.e. docked pay) for doing it. It should be part of the expectation, and therefore, paid. It’s a safety issue, not a luxury. And certainly failure to provide adequate facilities for it is a major contributor, whether the problem in this particular camp came from a caterer, a firefighter, or a finance person who didn’t cross camp to use the only handwash station. Nitpicking such costs is being penny wise and pound foolish for sure. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that in this particular case it was firefighters’ faults, as no one knows, and certainly not I who wasn’t there. At the same time, I’ve known first hand of crews who have made pacts that "no one showers until we get home", crew bosses reprimanding members for washing their face because "we don’t do that while on assignment", etc. THAT’s the part of the culture that has to change. I work on the line – I understand the lousy lunches, the lack of facilities, etc., and agree 100% that if firefighter safety is the priority we claim, we need to provide healthy, edible, nutritious stuff, not just stuff from the quick shop shoved into a sack. I fully understand that many times, on the line, spiked out, whatever, there aren’t facilities. That’s the life we’ve chosen for ourselves. When you work 14-16 hours and get back, with 8 hours to do all the stuff we’re supposed to do, that’s NOT meeting 2:1 except on paper. That needs to change as well. Excellent point. Being sleep deprived is a major risk factor for disease spread as well – if your body’s worn down, you’ll catch something you normally would fight off without noticing. All great points that need to be addressed if we’re really going to "provide for safety first". Hopefully people beyond this conversation are evaluating and addressing the same issues – all of them!
Having spent time on the above mentioned incident I feel fortunate I was not stricken like many of my fellow crewmates. Hygiene can be preached until we are blue in the face but that does not necessarily solve the problem. For example, on this fire, there were portable toilets set up for nearly two days with no hand washing facilities in sight (except by the food trailer away from most toilets), and to top it off every single toilet included an empty hand sanitizer dispenser. The first night we were there the potable water tender was turned around because the load of water it contained was not potable. When the tender left to refill, did the tanks get washed and sanitized? We waited until near 2330 to eat that night because they wouldn’t let us until we washed our hands. Who knows if the water came back contaminated, there was such a rush to hook it up leaving no time to ask those questions.It is hard to place all blame on the caterer. It could have been food they purchased, but more than likely the "h" word contributed. Firefighters are not the only ones in camp who need to practice hygiene. These who prepare our food should be held to the highest standard. We are out there working hard in extreme conditions and often eating like crap. We receive lunches that appear to be built with last nights left overs, supplemented by other items which lack nutrition to help the human body work in these brutal conditions. Let me tell you how awesome it is to bust ass and then your only snack is a nut roll that even gas stations have a hard time selling at 25 cents a piece. These caterers, facility providers and tender operators are being paid a high price by the federal government and skimping on their service and screwing the ones whom need it the most. Instead of balking at us for not taking a half hour lunch or claiming a 16 when we are away from our loved ones for months on end, why don’t we get serious about the often s****y service we tolerate in camp. Instead of busting our balls for having a dirty face or sweaty shirt, focus some attention the food server who just left the blue room without washing their hands or the crap we often accept as lunches because someone doesn’t want to spend money on good service.Those who choose to ignore this and blame firefighters for a lack of hand washing and hygiene when these outbreaks occur are completely out of touch with what is going on. Instead of spending your day driving around in your cushy truck or hanging out in the shade questioning supply orders (i.e. clean nomex), leave camp, come back to your roots and spend a couple of weeks with us. Come enjoy a cheap ass sandwich and munch on a nut roll.One more thing, I don’t ever recall anyone stating that being dirty in "macho" or "makes you a better firefighter." Are you kidding me! Over 100 people did not get sick because a lack of their hygiene. It was a lack of food or water handling standards. It is completely asinine to expect everyone to walk into camp and be ready to eat crystal clean. I have been in those camps, and people don’t just get sick because they don’t feel like washing their hands or faces. I have been in numerous spike camps with NO WAY to wash hands except for the poor substitute we call sanitizer and no one got sick. We are talking hundreds of people. So give me a break. That is just an ignorant and unintelligent thing to say.
This problem is much deeper than the availability of hand washing stations. As all wildland firefighters know, there are hundreds of "tactics" to make sure you get as many hours as possible on the CTR. That list of tactics doesn’t include going into camp early to take a shower and wash your face before dinner. The finance section wouldn’t stand for such an obviously innapropriate use of government funds. Rules like 2:1 work to rest are feeble attempts at putting the importance of firefighter health before the issue of cost containment. If you’re on the line for 16 hours, that gives you 8 hours to sleep, shower, eat twice, and attend to any personal matters. Read the USFS work to rest report and you’ll see that 16 hours on the CTR does in no way meet the true intent. Why do people fight fires? The adrenaline? The excitement? The money? How many are willing to sacrifice a few hours of pay when they are already away from home so that they can take a shower? Maybe if firefighters could take showers while they were on the clock, hygiene would be a higher priority? I’m sure a suggestion like this opens up a veritable pandora’s box of issues, but the bottom line is that wildland firefighters are paid meager hourly wages to live and work under extreme environmental conditions. It’s nobody’s fault but the policy makers who would rather spend 30 thousand dollars a day to have a heavy helicopter sitting on a helipad or a couple million dollars to get the latest, greatest color infrared maps after the fires are out than put that money into better nutrition or reinforcing hygiene practicies. Money talks B******* walks.l bet even the most grizzled, veteran hotshot wouldn’t say no to a shower or washing his hands five times were he still on the clock and it didn’t cut into his already insufficient sleep time. And how about putting nutritious food in the lunches instead of sliced "turkey" from the lowest bidder and a baggie with last night’s unused lettuce? It’s difficult for the human immune system to work when it it is already depressed from long work hours, horrible food, and the generators they conveniently keep running next to the sleeping areas all night. Whoever thinks that handwashing is the problem or the solution is missing the bigger picture. Solve the problems don’t treat the symptoms!
"100 people do not simply choose to not wash their hands"…apparently you haven’t been in some of the same camps I’ve been in – both as a line firefighter and working base camp. Congratulations to Whalen’s team if they were being proactive in enforcing good hygiene. It undoubtedly would have been much worse if they hadn’t. Nonetheless, it is clear that it is still part of the outdated culture in some crews and camps that filth is macho – proof that you were really working, or "working a lot harder than…" as the previous post said. Filth is part of the job, but wearing it to dinner or to bed to prove you worked hard is just ignorance. I’ve been in more than one camp where camp crud broke out, and literally from the day we started enforcing good hygiene the spread stopped. That’s the cultural thing we have to address, and the attitude we have to change in the 21st century. 2 weeks of unwashed filth does not a better firefighter make.
The comment below was edited a bit; a few words were removed. Be sure and keep comments civil and about issues, not personalities. BG——Hygeine is certainly at issue here, but it is not the firefighters who are to blame. to date (7/23) over 100 people have been stricken with diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. The food unit leader on Whalen’s team wouldn’t even let us eat until there was potable water on site for firefighters to wash their hands BEFORE entering the food line. 100 people do not simply choose to not wash their hands. A more likely reason for the outbreak is the catering unit itself and their employees. I for one will avoid eating from PORT-A-PIT (Arizona) in the future.If you are a logistics unit leader as you claim, then you should know that handwashing stations are on-site at most fires and are used. Give the firefighters some credit. They are working a lot harder than your lazy ass in camp.
Hygiene is so important in fire camps which is something I preach to my team and all firefighters assigned to any Incident we are on. But, food poisoning is very psssible as my team found out in 2000 in Reno. Food the incident had recieved from a local casinio was bad and 50 members of the team and others got very sick. The Washoe Co. health department was very busy trying to figure out waht happend. So food prep and handling is so important too.
The symptoms appear to be similar to those of food poisoning. The problem could be with the food catering or the drinking water supplies. Blaming the firefighters for poor personal hygiene may be hasty and unwarranted.
Simple Hygiene is the answer… Read Eric’s post. It’s not macho to not wash your hands and face for dinner or breakfasts. Camp Crud no matter what virius you call it is easily preventable by doing some simple chores like washing your hands. Hey my son spent 90 days in hospital this year for a virius they couldn’t figure out. People this stuff is serious,being a supply unit leader for a Northern Rockies team, I run across some kind of infection or virius every year that spreads in camps. Like Eric says in his post Hygiene must become part of our culture in the fire fighting world
As long as it’s macho to go days without washing, to show up to dinner with filthy nomex on and without even washing your face, to avoid showering for as long as possible, this sort of thing will continue. Yeah, we all like to get hot and dirty fighting fire, and at times we have to make due with less than hygienic conditions, but when facilities are there, they MUST be used, and hygiene must become part of the culture…or disease will. MRSA last summer, swine flu this year, now norovirus. All mostly preventable by simple hygiene.