Determination of İzmir firebrigade personel's opinion regarding the effect of COVID-19 on Seferihisar earthquake response and their fear of COVID-19 during the pandemic

As of 2020, COVID-19, a viral infection, affected the world and caused disease all over the world. On the date (March 11, 2020) it was detected in Turkey, the disease was declared as a pandemic. The response to the disasters which occurred during the pandemic is more complicated and difficult to manage than the disaster responses given in the normal period without a pandemic. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 on Izmir-Seferihisar earthquake response, and determine knowledge, opinions, behaviors and fears of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department fire fighters regarding COVID-19. The research was carried out with face-to-face interviews in 52 stations and 1267 firefighters participated in the study. The data was gathered with 60 item questionnaire and 7 item COVID-19 Fear Scale. The analysis was done with SPSS program. In the statistical analysis, Shapiro Wilks test. Student's T test and One-Way ANOVA tests were used where they were appropriate. 568 firefighter, 42 of whom were women, participated in the study. The mean age of the firefighters participating in the study was 41.8±8.4 years. 23.8% of the firefighters were working at the stations located in the city center of Izmir province. The mean working year of the firefighters was 15.1±8.5 years. 81.5% of the firefighters said that they played an active role in the Izmir Seferihisar earthquake. 39.1% of the firefighters stated that their level of knowledge about the COVID-19 disease is partially sufficient, and 30.3% of them stated that they would definitely have the COVID-19 vaccine injected. The firefighters had a mean score of 16.2±5.7 from the COVID-19 Fear Scale. It was observed that the fear scores of the firefighters increased in the presence of chronic diseases. The fear score of the employees in the Fire and Emergency Response branch was found to be lower than the other units.