MANSFIELD - Mansfield fire Chief Steve Strickling and Capt. Brian Danals, the department's safety officer, said they had an early awareness of the coronavirus and participated in a pandemic drill with Richland County the first week of January 2020.
"I was looking at my phone and looking at this new virus coming out of China on the day of the drill," Strickling said.
"Because I have an interest in that, I started paying attention to the World Health Organization website on a regular basis as cases expanded from China and I started talking to the guys and said this could be a big issue for us as it starts going," Strickling said.