Local fire chief takes command in Alamosa

Deputy Chief Jeff Berino named Incident Commander during Alamosa salmonella outbreak

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By ASHLEY DICKSON
summit daily news
Summit County, CO Colorado
March 28, 2008

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SUMMIT COUNTY — Lake Dillon Fire and Rescue Deputy Chief Jeff Berino is doing his part to help people in Alamosa get back on track after an outbreak of salmonella in the city’s water supply sickened over 250 people, said Lake Dillon Fire and Rescue public information officer Brandon Williams.

A Type 3 Incident Regional Commander, Berino is one of only a handful of people in the state qualified to manage communications operations in order to establish effective and efficient domestic incident management.

The Northwest Incident Management Team was recently called down to Alamosa to relieve the Jefferson County Team that had been handling communication management for over a week.

“Right now as Incident Commander he is running a combined team with local, state and federal authorities,” said Williams, who has been getting frequent updates from Berino over the phone.

“He says their focus right now is flushing the water system to ‘kill the bug’ and to keep notifying the public about developments,” Williams added.

Summit County paramedic Kim Campbell is also a member of the Northwest Incident Management Team, and has joined Berino down in Alamosa.

Campbell is working as the planning sections chief, coordinating the efforts of all the separate organizations involved in obtaining clean water for the town.

Salmonella poisoning cases began to turn up about two weeks ago, with residents displaying symptoms that included diarrhea, fever and stomach pains.

According to Williams, crews have begun pumping chlorine through the Alamosa city water system and the chlorine concentration level is currently at 25 parts per million, a level so high it can irritate or burn the skin.

“People can’t do anything with the water but flush a toilet,” said Williams. “They are trying to get it down to 10 parts per million but the water still won’t be drinkable for at least another two weeks.”

Drinking water is normally sanitized with about 1 parts per million of chlorine.

Last week Governor Bill Ritter declared a State Disaster Emergency and sent a letter to the federal Department of Health and Human Services on Monday asking for addition assistance to manage the repercussions of the outbreak.

The state health department issued a bottled-water advisory for the town shortly after the salmonella was discovered, and many companies have come forward to donate large palates of bottled water to distribute to residents.

“Volunteers and the National Guard have been distributing flyers door-to-door to keep residents informed, but it’s a really big job to manage everything that’s going on down there,” said Williams.

Ashley Dickson can be reached at (970) 668-4629, or at adickson@summitdaily.com.