Fire Department Takes on Mental Health After Devastating Blaze

Fire Department Takes on Mental Health After Devastating Blaze
The Santa Rosa Fire Department battled one of the most devastating natural disasters in California history and is now working to combat and prevent the mental health injuries that result from such trauma.
Few homes are under construction in a Fountain Grove subdivision in the aftermath and rebuilding of the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa, Calif., on October 10, 2018. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
TNS
Travers Collins, Santa Rosa, Calif., battalion chief, has an analogy for the toll firefighting takes during a firefighter’s career.
He said each firefighter starts his career wearing an empty backpack, which will eventually fill with potentially harmful experiences that could lead to mental health problems. The firefighter goes on a call where a child dies. That’s about a baseball-sized rock that goes into that backpack. Then they go on a call where a grandmother died of a heart attack. It reminds them of their own grandmother — a marble-sized rock goes into the backpack. Then a major fire, maybe like the Tubbs Fire, hits and the community is devastated and maybe they lost their house. The backpack is getting heavier.

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