They’re on the front line, battling blazes throughout our nation. Yet the traumatic calls can add up, leading many firefighters to deal with a fire within.
“As a first responder, we do see a lot of stuff and it does affect us,” Troy Holtorf, Phoenix Fire Department firefighter, said. “We’re the first ones to help a complete stranger but we’re the last ones to help ourselves.”
According to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2016, there were 69 firefighters who died while on the line of duty. In the same year, there were 99 firefighter suicides.
“As firefighters, we operate in darkness of the smoke a lot on fires but also the darkness of the world—the violence, the shootings, the school shootings, Las Vegas,” Nick Petrucci, retired Phoenix firefighter, said. “We really feel for those victims and those families. But if you always look back you’ll see a first responder, a police officer, a firefighter, EMT’s, medical people. So, we just believe we need an outlet because those things affect us, too. PTSD is a big thing. A lot of firefighter suicides, we lost four or five guys in the last five years, to suicide.”
Source : foxnews
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