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 hear
She didn t know it, but retired paramedic Susan Farren s timing was impeccable.
A bout with kidney cancer in 2016 ended her long career on ambulances. Her experience with the illness opened her eyes to research showing first responders are more susceptible to certain diseases and health problems. A common factor is stress.
Once healthy, she sold her house to get the seed money to start First Responders Resiliency Inc. in early 2017. The nonprofit program teaches police, fire and emergency workers how stress affects the body and practices to withstand the pressures from their jobs.
That year, the October fires erupted amid a dry, inland windstorm. Infernos burned across Northern California, scorching more than 245,000 acres and killing at least 44 people from the North Bay to the Sierra Nevada foothills. In Sonoma County, the Tubbs fire tore through suburban Santa Rosa neighborhoods in the middle of the night and was for hours a dangerous and terrifying rescue mission for first res