Editor’s note: Chief Adam K. Thiel pauses to reflect on the tragic suicide of an Atlanta firefighter and urges us to learn as much as we can about this phenomenon to help our fellow responders.
I know you all join me in extending our heartfelt sympathies to the family of Atlanta firefighter Katrina Sims and all the members of Atlanta Fire-Rescue.
While we don’t know the exact circumstances, this tragic loss of a young firefighter punctuated International Fire\EMS Health and Safety Week, providing a salient reminder of one of this year’s themes — behavioral health.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a firefighter suicide in the news, and it probably won’t be the last.
Although we’ve come a long way in understanding the psychological stressors of fire and emergency services work, there remains an incomplete appreciation for the magnitude of effort we still need to make to help our members (career and volunteer, full- or part-time) cope with seeing, hearing, smelling and touching things that most people won’t experience in their entire life.
In fact, more than once over the last year have I heard folks outside our service say, “that’s just part of the job ... why don’t they suck it up and go back to work?”
It seems inconceivable that these attitudes could still exist, both inside and outside our departments, given the increased attention on post-traumatic stress disorder arising from the experiences of our armed forces over the past decade, but apparently we still have a ways to go.
Until then, we owe it to each other to learn to recognize the warning signs and do whatever we can to help our brothers and sisters get what they need to handle their own “worst days.”
Stay safe.
