By Bill Carey
EMS1
DENVER — When a wildfire begins, medical professionals join firefighters to assist injured personnel.
At Denver Health, 16 paramedics and eight communications officers on the Wildland Team are on standby, ready to be deployed by the National Interagency Fire Center, 9 News reported.
“We’re ready for it. We’re prepared for it,” said Denver Health Fire Line Paramedic Logan Opalinski said. “We obviously have the ability and the structure to treat and transport really anything that we need to.”
Opalinski was deployed to Pueblo weeks ago to assist crews fighting the Oak Ridge Fire, working directly on the front lines.
“We can go with hot shots. They’re elite. They’re essentially athletes. We can go with smoke jumpers,” Denver Health Lieutenant Jay Starzynski said. “You can also be doing structure protection with someone who is driving the water tender.”
Currently, two Denver Health paramedics are on fire lines in Oregon and Wyoming, while a communications officer aids the Alexander Mountain Fire near Loveland.
