Southeastern Restoration Donates Gloves To Cherokee Fire

CHEROKEE COUNTY, GA — The current Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a national shortage of personnel protective equipment for healthcare professionals and first responders. The shortage has been felt locally by Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services.

"We have implemented several measures for our personnel to protect themselves from spread of the virus," Fire Chief Tim Prather said.

Those include full personnel protective equipment during patient care, measures of de-contamination of surfaces that are frequently used in the fire stations to the cleaning of fire apparatus, ambulances and equipment after every EMS call.

After procedures were in place, in a short two weeks, we saw a dramatic depletion of personal protective equipment, especially medical gloves. Support services placed orders for resupply, but most all vendors were backed up on orders.

One local business heard of the fire department's need. Southeastern Restoration reached out to the fire department to identify how it could help. They learned that they were in need of gloves to help decontaminate the fire stations.

Then on Monday, Southeastern Restoration donated 7,400 gloves to the fire department to assist in their effort to maintain a safer work environment.

"This was a surprise and great news," Prather said. "This will definitely help with maintaining our supply of medical gloves."