MOSES LAKE — In a fire station off a quiet road near downtown, front line workers in the ongoing fight against the novel coronavirus have just returned from a medical call.

On a normal day, the men and women of the Moses Lake Fire Department respond to a number of medical calls, resuscitating and evaluating, getting people to medical care if it’s needed.

But this isn’t a normal day. Returning from their most recent call Thursday, crews strip out of bulky hazmat suits that look a bit like oversized yard waste bags — or Teletubby suits, as the local police put it in a tongue-in-cheek social media post — and get to work sterilizing the ambulance.

They set to work, pulling out the gurney, wiping down touch surfaces, washing out their suits and filters and wiping down their masks, all to prepare for the next call for a person experiencing symptoms of COVID-19. This can cause delays in responding to the next call, but it’s necessary.

“It’s not necessarily for us, but for the next person,” said firefighter-paramedic Rob Hecker. “So if we’re called out to you and you’ve broken your ankle, you don’t get exposed to this thing and we don’t give it to you, a completely innocent person.”

‘We can’t replace them’

The hazmat suits are the same ones the firefighters would use if they were responding to a call involving dangerous chemicals, but today they’re being used to protect first responders from catching the highly contagious virus that has led to businesses shutting down across the state.

Not all medical calls get the full-suit treatment. When responding to medical calls, dispatchers have been asking patients whether they’re presenting any of the most common symptoms of COVID-19, including fever, cough and shortness of breath, said firefighter-paramedic Garrett Fletcher. That way, they know when the suits are most necessary and when they can get by with just masks and gloves.

A lot more calls have required the full suit as of Thursday, the firefighters said, as more residents become aware of the dangers of COVID-19 and after Samaritan Healthcare opened its Respiratory Virus Evaluation Center nearby. Already a number of patients at that center have presented with symptoms severe enough that crews have been called out to transport them to the emergency room.

The suits have caused a stir, the firefighters on duty said, with bystanders staring or taking photos as crews respond to medical calls. But it’s better than having crews have to wash their clothes every time they get back into the station, and every piece of safety gear is essential, said Assistant Fire Chief Pete Kunjara.

“We can’t afford for them to be hurt and out of service,” Kunjara said. “They’re on the front line, and we can’t replace them.”

When crews from other stations visit to pick up supplies, they have to stand far away from other crew members. And those supplies are left outside of the central station so that crews can get them without coming inside.

Beyond patients and the crews, these new safety precautions are also in place to protect the families of crew members.

Kurt Nygard is a firefighter-EMT, but he’s also a father to a little kid who’s front-of-mind as Nygard tends to possible coronavirus patients.

“I think that’s what it’s like for a lot of people,” Nygard said. “Yeah, if I get sick, I get sick; we’re going to try not to, but I don’t want to take it home. But with this equipment, it makes you feel a little better knowing there’s something to prepare yourself.”

Supplies 'pretty much out'

Though crews are attempting to suit up as best they can, there have been some severe limiting factors. N95 masks, a basic face mask and a common item at hardware stores, have utterly disappeared from shelves, both for retailers but also, more critically, for distributors. The same applies for the filters used in the more heavy-duty N100 masks.

“Our supplies are pretty much out,” Kunjara said. “The N95 masks, even the filters you can’t get anymore. We’ve been getting ours from a medical supply vendor, but they’re completely out. We’ve made requests to the national and the state (governments), but that’s going to take a while.”

That has meant rationing the masks, much like what is occurring among nurses and caretakers similarly impacted by the shortage. Hecker motions to his mask, which he’s been washing and reusing.

“Long gone are the days of one patient, one mask,” Hecker said. “Hopefully, it works out.”

Over time, even with regularly rinsing them out, those masks get clogged with dirt, dust and oils from the skin, Hecker said. Over time they get stiff and become hard to breathe through.

The supply of N100 masks is even tighter, with crew members sharing masks and using expired filters dug up out of storage. The station would prefer to be able to supply everyone with their own gear, but the national supplier is fresh out of stock.

‘Another day at work’

Despite the elevated danger, the firefighters — accustomed to stressful, high-risk situations — decompress as they always do after a hard day, poking fun at each other and laughing in the face of a grim situation.

They joke about the toilet paper shortages and about showing up unannounced at the assistant chief’s house to use his bidet, they laugh about the lack of equipment, and they tease each other about who’s going to get the virus first.

Today isn’t exactly a normal day, nor will days return to normal in the immediate future.

“But, I mean, it’s another day at work,” Nygard said.