VT College of Science Magazine Fall 2005 | Page 10

Russell Jones (l) counsels Katie Bowyer (r), 12,
of Blacksburg, while her mother, Angela (c),
observes. Katie survived a tragic house fire in
February 2005 that took the life of her grandfather. She spent four months in the hospital
– most of them in critical condition – before
she was able to return home and begin to put
her normal life back together again.

“We interview survivors and assess their level of psychological distress,” Jones said. “The most common pathological outcomes include depression and post-traumatic stress
syndrome.”

REACT
Most of the children studied reported that a house fire was
the most traumatizing event they had ever experienced,
and 75 percent of them believed they could do nothing
to prevent house fires. That’s where Jones and his clinical
team go above and beyond empirical research. Through
a program called REACT (Recovery Effort After Child
Trauma), they provide assistance to
help children and families recover

Hope

from a fire.
“There are currently no long-term
systematic programs that we know
of to assist children after a fire,” Jones
said. “We hope that our model will
be a template for other communities
across the country.”

after tragedy
photo by John McCormick

Studies show one in every five families will experience a fire in
their homes. Someone is injured by fire every 37 seconds and
killed by fire every three hours. About 70 percent of these fires
are residential, and most could have been prevented.
Sobering statistics. And yet researchers in the College of
Science’s Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech are
offering more than a flicker of hope to families whose lives
have tragically gone up in flames.
Russell T. Jones, professor of psychology, and his team have
studied the influence of major technological and natural
disasters on children’s functioning for the past 26 years. His
most recent endeavor was the completion of a $1.2 million
National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) grant assessing
the impact of residential fire on children and their parents.

“Residential fires are unique in that they typically impact
one single family,” Jones said. “After the fire trucks are gone
and the Red Cross has completed its efforts, families are
basically left to fend for themselves. This isolation may lead
to even greater levels of psychological distress.”
Jones found in his research that fire emergencies have
potentially deleterious consequences on children and their
families – consequences that may continue for years after
the disaster.

put their lives back together,” Jones said. “Many parents are not
aware of what’s really going on with their kids.”
Jones said a classic response to a negative event is to avoid
talking about it. “We know from research that avoidance
inadvertently reinforces the fear,” he said.

Beyond Psychological Counseling
Research shows those most likely to be injured by fire are
children and the elderly, and burn injuries are the thirdleading cause of death in children each year.
Many victims of fires are from low-income families. The
REACT team assists
families psychologically
and helps identify service
needs and connect them
with resources, such
as school counselors,
churches, the American
Red Cross, and social
services.

There are currently no
long-term systematic
programs that we know
of to assist children
after a fire.

The goal of this free program is to
help children and their families overcome their physical and psychological hardships resulting from residential fire and return to
their previous levels of functioning. Using cognitive behavioral strategies, the REACT team helps children and their
families cope with the devastating impact of the fire.

The Fear Factor
“Most victims feel an unbelievable sense of loss after a fire,”
Jones said. “Children typically report a number of fears.
Often they are very worried they won’t survive the next
time there is a fire.”
The REACT team helps children feel more control over
their situations by talking about and processing their fears
as well as negative thoughts and memories of the event.
They are also taught empowering skills such as the “stop,
drop, and roll” technique and fire safety and relaxation
procedures.
“Fear is an important emotional aspect that can get overlooked
when the adults in a family are trying to pick up the pieces and

In addition to the NIMH
study, two FEMA grants
enabled Jones’ group to
study both injured and non-injured children following
fire-related trauma. He is also spearheading a project in
conjunction with the Yale Child Study Center designed to
treat children after a residential fire.
Jones’ research and humanitarian efforts are nationally
recognized. He was recently featured in a PBS documentary
on young burn victims and presented some of his collaboration with Yale on C-Span at the First International
Conference on Trauma and Psychosocial Issues held at the
National P