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A veteran Houston firefighter died early Monday from complications of COVID-19.
Firefighter Jerry Pacheco had been with the department for 17 years and was assigned to Station 101 in Houston's Kingwood area, Chief Samuel Peña said in an online update. His son also is a Houston firefighter.
Pacheco's death is the second for the Houston Fire Department. His death comes two weeks after the death of Capt. Leroy Lucio.
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Last week, a department memo went out to firefighters and paramedics explaining that 9-1-1 dispatchers would no longer be giving them alerts to potential COVID-19 patents. Dispatchers would no longer be asking callers questions about the virus because of an “increasing difficulty” to determine if a patient was infected.
“In the best interest of HFD members’ health and well-being, all addresses and patients should be considered as possible COVID-19 positive places and patients,” Assistant Fire Chief Matthew White wrote in the memo. “No attempts should be made or opinions formed to consider and treat any patient as ‘non-COVID.’”
