Soap and water are effective at killing COVID-19 germs on your hands, but Thompson Valley Emergency Medical Services is using something a little more high-tech to disinfect its ambulances: ultraviolet light.

After each ambulance ride, the vehicle’s surfaces are wiped down with disinfectant wipes and then disinfected using a UVC light, which emits a wavelength of light that destroys bacteria and viruses.

The light is hung from the ceiling of the vehicle and is left on for 20 minutes to kill germs, said Thompson Valley EMS battalion chief Tim Zimmerman. The light bounces around inside the ambulance and gets into the nooks and crannies, ensuring that the vehicle is fully decontaminated, he said.

“Any place light gets to, it will kill,” he said.

After the Ebola outbreak in 2014, Zimmerman said the department decided that it needed to upgrade its decontamination equipment in case a serious outbreak of disease ever came to Colorado. After conducting research, it determined that the UVC light would be most effective.

The department purchased six UVC lights, one for each station, in 2015. They weren’t cheap, coming in at $4,000 apiece. But they’ve been “absolutely priceless” to have during the coronavirus pandemic, Zimmerman said.

Along with killing germs in offices and bedrooms, the department has been using the lights to decontaminate masks so that they can be reused, he said.

The UVC light is dangerous to people, however. Being exposed to it can cause serious skin and eye damage in a matter of minutes. Paramedics start it on a delay so they don’t have to be inside the ambulance when it’s on.

First responders throughout the area have been taking extra precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Greg Ward, Loveland Fire Rescue Authority’s operations chief, said the fire department has enough personal protective equipment for about 45 days but has been running low on cleaning supplies.

“We’re constantly looking for bleach and Clorox wipes and those types of things,” he said.

The community has been generous in helping to fill the need, he said. Last week, people donated dozens of boxes of masks, gloves and cleaning supplies to a personal protective equipment drive organized by Larimer County.

The fire stations get cleaned regularly, but staff members are now being “extra vigilant” about sanitation, and surfaces that get touched frequently are being cleaned multiple times a day, he said.

Because firefighters live at the station while on duty, they also have to be extra careful to keep their living spaces clean.

“It’s a lot like living with your family,” Ward said.

Ward said the department has not had any firefighters who were knowingly exposed on duty, and it hasn’t had to quarantine anyone. It has had some firefighters who are sick with other illnesses or whose family members are sick stay home from work for a period of time to ensure that they are safe.

May Soricelli, a spokeswoman for the Berthoud Fire District, said two of the district’s firefighters who were in heavily infected areas of the state were quarantined out of an abundance of caution, but neither of them turned out to have the disease.

To reduce the number of first responders who potentially could be exposed on a call, Berthoud Fire and Loveland Fire have both transitioned to staging while Thompson Valley EMS responds to calls first, unless the situation is immediately life-threatening. If a fire crew is needed, paramedics will call for one to respond to the scene as well.

“We’re doing everything we can to keep our firefighters from becoming infected,” Soricelli said.