Volunteers selected from fire rescue detachment disinfect anti-epidemic supplies. [Photo/northnews.cn]

Firemen inspect fire equipment at a quarantine hotel. [Photo/northnews.cn]

The Baotou fire rescue detachment selected 23 volunteers from the Communist Party of China to set up an epidemic prevention and control commando team and serve on the front lines of epidemic prevention and control efforts.

In a mobile pop-up laboratory, captain Xi Zeyu led 10 commandos to carry out personnel management and control, vehicle dredging, site epidemic control and sterilization efforts, transfer of epidemic-related materials, and sample inventory and registration.

They also split and submitted more than 20,000 nucleic acid testing samples per day for inspection – no easy task due to the huge amount of data.

"Despite the heavy workload, nobody on the team wanted to give up," Xi said.

Volunteers wore protective clothing, worked for an average of more than 16 hours a day in the cold, were unable to drink water or go to the toilet, and had to eat lunch in shifts to maintain their physical strength.

In addition to cooperating with work carried out by the epidemic prevention department, fire prevention work in isolation places is also very important. The team inspected the floor plans of isolation hotels and made sure the emergency escape routes were functional.