The worst time to figure out how you’ll respond to trauma is after it happens. Resilience has to be built beforehand — through sleep, relationships, fitness, trusted peers and a culture where asking for help is part of the job, not a last resort. That idea sits at the heart of our conversation with retired FDNY Captain Frank Leto, who helped shape the department’s counseling and peer support programs in the years after 9/11. As the fire service approaches the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, we’re revisiting this episode because many of the lessons born from that tragedy still apply to every department today. Leto explains why FDNY’s early attempts to embed clinicians in firehouses fell short and why fellow firefighters became the key to effective peer support.
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The unnamed woman is the second World Trade Center victim identified using investigative genetic genealogy, bringing the total identified to 1,655 as roughly 40% of those killed in the 2001 attacks remain unidentified 25 years later
October 15, 2026 07:41 AM
The wall, funded by probationary firefighter Haley Sato through a coin-selling campaign honoring instructor Idris Bey, honors 20 EMS members who died in the line of duty or from World Trade Center-related illnesses
October 15, 2026 06:30 AM
The former Baltimore County paramedic pleaded guilty to filming himself urinating and ejaculating on fire department property, including co-workers’ food and equipment
October 14, 2026 06:32 AM
When an incident stretches across meals, weather changes, crew rotations and operational periods, the larger challenge becomes sustaining the entire response
October 09, 2026 06:18 AM
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After separate trips down under, Chief Caughey and Zam break down what Australian departments are ahead on, where they struggle and what U.S. firefighters can borrow
October 08, 2026 10:20 AM
Life-threatening emergency response times have climbed from 9:34 in 2021 to 13:09 this fiscal year as FDNY loses about 10 ambulance units daily to staffing shortages, with officials pointing to the pay gap between EMTs and firefighters
October 07, 2026 04:00 AM
