THE
DARK
PEELING BACK THE LAYERS
SECRET
By Paola Baker VV Daily Press
Fire officials work to address
PTSD as suicides outnumber
deaths in the line of duty
New recruits going through the fire academy also go through training,
along with their families, to talk about PTSD in the fire service, “what
they can expect and what they should be looking for.”
“Back then it was just ‘keep your mouth shut, suck it up.’ You’d come
back to the station and the senior firefighters were just laughing at the
stuff they’d seen,” Lima said. “That’s how they dealt with it.” “Many times firefighters might not know they’re going through PTSD,”
Martinez said. “And it can hit you days, even years, after the incident. So
we’re trying to train to look for the signs.”
Espinoza categorized it as a “generational gap” between veteran
firefighters and newer recruits, a gap that can still be difficult to
effectively bridge. The IAFF opened up an innovative “Recovery Center” last year for
firefighters going through PTSD or depression. Located in Maryland, the
15-acre facility, designed to look and feel like a firehouse, boasts a full
gym, pool, and a range of experts ready to help.
Frank Lima still remembers, with a disturbing amount of clarity,
some of the images he saw as part of the group of firefighters who
responded to the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on 9/11. But much like the layer of soot and ash that tends to permeate all
firefighters’ uniforms and gear, some incidents stick around much
longer than intended. “We have a hard time reaching the older guys sometimes—they’re
still very much into the mindset of ‘we’re bad, we can handle this,’”
Espinoza said.
“I have a noise—a horrific noise, a scream, from someone trapped
inside—I can still hear it in my head, years later. It was just too
late to save them,” Lima said. “I still get nightmares from time to time,” Lima said. “I’ll go for
months at a time where I don’t get them, then all of a sudden they
start again.” One way to get through the storm is to simply become more aware of the
signs that it’s building. As such, fire departments around the nation are
tackling the issue from the very beginning, starting with fresh recruits.
Lima, vice president for the International Association of Fire
Firefighters (IAFF)’s 10th District, which covers large areas of
the West Coast, has been in the firefighting world for almost
30 years. In that time, he’s covered deadly house fires, the WTC
attacks, drive-by shootings and much more. It’s a scenario that’s heartbreakingly familiar to anyone who’s
spent time in the fire service, a world where bravery, pride, and
the overwhelming need to help others can often overshadow the
inherent trauma that comes with it.
It becomes normal in a way, Lima says. Firefighters are often
used to jumping from call to call, patient to patient, incident
to incident, often without taking much of a breath or giving a
passing thought to what they just experienced.
A SILENT KILLER
The IAFF has been at the forefront of raising awareness of the high rates
of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in firefighters, especially as
suicides continue to increase.
A study commissioned by the Ruderman Family Foundation in 2017 found
that first responders, including firefighters, are more likely to die by
suicide than in the line of duty. Last year, there were at least 103 firefighter
suicides, compared to 93 line-of-duty deaths.
PTSD and depression rates among firefighters also have been found to be
as much as five times higher than the rates among civilians, according to
the study.
“To me, that’s job-related,” Barstow Fire Protection District Captain Travis
Espinoza said. “We can tie that back to the things we do and see.”
The symptoms of PTSD and depression can be quite varied, especially from
person to person. But authorities say they tend to fall into one of three
categories: intrusive memories, avoidance or emotional numbing, and
anxiety and increased emotional arousal.
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Espinoza and Lima both said the stigma associated with seeking help
for trauma was a major factor in keeping PTSD among firefighters in
the shadows.
FIREWIRE • FALL 2018
“Everyone knows we go to fires, but we respond to every single
emergency there is,” Lima said. “We actually touch those hurt and
dead patients. And it wears on you.”
Lima said the IAFF is “aggressively training” union members to become
what they call “behavioral health peers,” firefighters trained to look for
signs of PTSD and provide some counseling if needed.
“We’ve found that firefighters would rather talk to their own people, at
least as a first buffer, to eventually getting help,” Lima said.
San Bernardino County Fire Public Information Officer Tracey Martinez
said the department has an internal peer support group, along with
contracting with Counseling Team International, which specializes in
helping public safety personnel, to provide needed services.
“After any major incident or any incident that has the potential to be
traumatizing, we have a debriefing that will include members from the
support group or the counselors, depending on the need,” Martinez said.
“It’s a first for firefighters—it’s built for them,” Lima said. “It’s one of
the first places to offer dual help, in addressing behavioral health and
the symptoms and coping mechanisms that can come with them, such as
drinking or substance abuse.”
The IAFF is looking to open a second location in the West Coast to be
able to treat more firefighters around the country, along with spreading
awareness on the issue.
“It’s the way of the future—we have to prepare our firefighters earlier,”
Lima said. “Let them know it’s OK to reach out if you see something
that gets to you, and you will. We have to let them know that, instead of
having them figure it out on their own after the fact.”
Visit: www.iaffrecoverycenter.com/center
for more information on the recovery center and for further resources on
PTSD and what signs to look out for.
Paola Baker is a reporter for the Daily Press newspaper in Victgorville.
She may be reached at 760-955-5332 or [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter at @DP_PaolaBaker.
Some of the more common symptoms are sleep or eating disorders,
depression, irritability and isolation. This can lead firefighters to self-
sabotaging behaviors, such as substance abuse, in an effort to cope.
“The more you drink, the more exhausted you get and you’ll pass out and
won’t get the nightmares,” Lima said, offering an example.
But it can sometimes be as innocuous as a firefighter getting “a little too
quiet after a call,” as Espinoza put it. He’s strived to lead by example,
making sure his crew always knows they have someone to turn to.
“I try to keep my guys talking. I’m sitting here at the station having this
conversation around all the guys right now,” Espinoza said. “I try to
always stay available if they need to talk. It’s hard for firefighters to just
reach out.”
This stigma can be a powerful barrier to seeking help. Many will instead turn
to other coping mechanisms, both positive and negative. But authorities
are now slowly realizing to that the issue needs to be addressed head-on.
NOT ALL
WOUNDS
ARE VISIBLE
“I’m glad this is starting to get out. It’s always been there, kind of like this
dark secret,” Lima said. “Just no one wanted to talk about it.”
FALL 2018 • FIREWIRE
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