Firefighters Cleared after Treating CA's First Coronavirus Fatality

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Three Rocklin firefighters have been cleared to return to work following a voluntary quarantine after providing emergency treatment to a Placer County man who became California’s first reported death due to complications from the coronavirus.

The Rocklin Fire Department employees have not shown symptoms of COVID-19 in the past 15 days after they responded to the emergency call Feb. 27, according to a news release from Rocklin city officials.

The firefighters and Rocklin officials followed recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the California Department of Public Health and Placer County Public Health to contain the spread of the virus.

The firefighters are relieved and look forward to returning to duty after this situation, “which was extremely stressful for them and their families,” officials said in the release. The firefighters and city officials also offered their condolences to the family of the man who died.

The elderly Rocklin man had underlying health conditions and was likely exposed to the the virus while overseas on a Princess Cruise ship that departed from San Francisco to Mexico between Feb. 11-22, according to a county news release. When the patient died, he had been isolated at Kaiser Roseville in “critically ill” condition.

Since then, three others in California have died from COVID-19 complications, including a woman in her 90s who was a resident at an assisted living facility in Sacramento County. Carlton Senior Living, which operates a facility in Elk Grove, announced the death was one of its residents.

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