Circleville, Ohio- I’m sure by now, you’ve heard about bed bugs, not only the damage they can cause a person’s body and mental state but the damage it does to your wallet. Bed bugs have been an epidemic sweeping the state.
Imagine for a moment, you are an emergency service, a medic or fire personnel with a Fire Station, several vehicles and many pieces of equipment to maintain.
We’ve recently spoke to our local Circleville Fire Department and here’s what they had to say about their constant battle with bed bugs.
The department encounters bed bugs frequently and once the crew, the vehicle or equipment is exposed, they are taken out of service and decontaminated. The decontamination process takes several hours to complete correctly and those hours can potentially cost lives. They also said 85% of their call volume is EMS related and as such, it is very important to have all vehicles, personnel and equipment at the ready and safe for the next patient they are called out to.
Annually, the Fire Department has a company come to the station and do a thorough search, that company uses a dog that has the ability to smell bed bugs as one of their tools just as a preventative measure. Our Circleville Fire Department does not have a special fund for the constant battle with bed bugs, instead they use money from their maintenance account. The cost is in the thousands every year.
