Garden Apartments
In “Sizing Up Garden-Style Apartment Fires” (Training Notebook, May 2023), Captain Zachary Brown correctly emphasizes the often pivotal role of attic/cockloft spaces in the development of a fire and in its ability to be contained by the fire service. However, he only mentions the two extremes in space subdivision there: firewalls and no division. There is a third type that is very popular in many parts of the country: the “draft stop.” This can be viewed as a minimal effort toward creating some kind of division of space. Building codes permit a single layer of nonrated, 1⁄2-inch gypsum board for this purpose. Some also allow a 3⁄8-inch panel of plywood or particleboard for this purpose. These are very limited efforts at creating some sort of fire division.
But, worse, building code officials do not recognize the role of cable TV installers. Experience suggests that one of their main functions is to go up into attics, chop man-sized holes in any draft stops, and depart without doing any remediation. Needless to say, such punctured draft stops do not have a fire safety value.
We have known about this problem for decades, but building codes have not been revised to offer any positive solutions. Yet, a good solution would not be difficult to envision: Mandate actual two-hour-rated partitions for attic spaces, each one to be fitted with a fire door in it. There should not be a temptation to cut holes if you can walk through a door, although fire marshals would need to inspect that unsealed openings have not been put in for running the cables themselves.
In his well-known book Building Construction for the Fire Service, the late Francis L. Brannigan was teaching the fire service about the cockloft problems since 1971. Yet, here we are, 50-plus years later, with the building codes still not providing a robust solution.
Vyto Babrauskas, Ph.D. Fire Science and Technology Inc. Cornville, Arizona
Mental Health and Finding Culturally Competent Resources
In a culture where, up until recently, the topic of mental health and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was all but ignored, how do you properly vet a resource when you do need help as a first responder? I first experienced this debacle back in 2015, when, for the most part, only our soldiers returning home from the war in the Middle East “had PTSD.”
For me, I had been seeing therapists and counselors who only interacted with the general population for my mental health issues. The problem was, whenever I would begin to tie in stories from my job as a firefighter and emergency medical technician, they weren’t taken into consideration very seriously.
The stigma surrounding mental health has kept many a mouth tight-lipped, especially men, regarding any trauma that a person may have experienced. A man or woman who is also a first responder is taught the “suck it up, buttercup” mentality that has always gone along with that culture, and it becomes a recipe for disaster.
Therapists, counselors, psychiatrists, mental health resources, and modalities have been around for a long, long time. Yes, in the 1950s and 1960s, you were just considered “crazy” if you had any sort of issue or disorder with you brain or psychology. After decades of research, studies, and past patients telling their stories of a better life posttreatment, we are becoming a society that better accepts mental health.
Not surprisingly though, the first responder community, specifically firefighters and emergency medical services, has helped keep the stigma alive in our culture by taking more time to accept it. The “tough as nails” mentality has been our biggest obstacle when trying to tackle the problem of what is now a mental health crisis.
Seeking help becomes a process of finding the right doctor, therapist, or modality that best fits the person. Within that is finding a “culturally competent” resource. The first responder culture is unique in many ways, and this takes a very special, uniquely trained individual to competently help the individual who is asking for mental health treatment.
The disposition, demeanor, and even dark humor that typically go along with a first responder’s personality take an experienced individual to properly peel back the layers appropriately.
We experience what most of society never will. We live with images most will never see. We deal with and often use humor to cope with what has affected us. For us to feel comfortable sharing all of that with mental health professionals, they need to truly understand our culture.
We need to build a relationship founded in trust, understanding, and appreciation of what we do for a job. This can be harder to find than it should be. There are culturally competent resources out there for our first responders and their families.
During my mental health journey of 2015, I finally found such a resource in the form of a retreat for first responders and veterans at On-Site Academy in Massachusetts. Shortly after that, when it was deemed necessary for me to work deeper on my trauma, I walked through the doors at McLean’s Hospital, outside Boston. LEADER at McLean’s is a first responder- and veteran-specific program put together in response to the Boston Marathon Bombing.
The true difference with most culturally competent providers and resources is they understand our lifestyles and our work schedules, both in a career and volunteer/on-call setting. They understand that we miss meals, birthdays, holidays, and sleeping in our own beds. They grasp the idea that we may have dozens of traumas buried up in our heads that we’re afraid to talk about because of our culture. The most important part is that they know how to use compassion, understanding, empathy, and honesty in getting us to open up so that we may heal; grow; and be stronger, more resilient human beings.
Cultural competence isn’t just a term; it’s a necessity for our way of life as first responders. These resources exist and are available for all first responders regardless of career, part-time, volunteer, or on-call positions. It’s time we start to use them and become a culture of stronger, more resilient responders. (Reprinted with permission of FASNY’s The Volunteer Firefighter magazine.)
Keith Hanks
Firefighter/EMT (Ret.) Mental Health Advocate
Massachusetts
Adrenaline Addiction and Fatigue Among First Responders
Ask first responders how adrenaline feels, and they will often light up as they use words like “it’s awesome” or “amazing” to describe its physiological effects. However, when you ask them why they may be engaging in addictions, risky behaviors, or self-sabotage while off duty, they may coincidentally respond with responses like, “It’s fun,” “It’s exciting,” or “I get bored.” I believe it is this parallel that is often overlooked and one I would like to further discuss.
As I have worked with an array of emergency responders and have been divorced from one and married to another, I have recognized that most are aware and connected to the physiological response of adrenaline but not to the emotional or behavioral impacts of it.
You see, every time that tone goes off, they are serenaded with adrenaline, dopamine, and cortisol. Their amygdala in their brain, which houses their fight-or-flight response, is abruptly awakened, which allows them to quickly respond to the immediate crisis. Most of them love it but only know why they do so on a physiological level. But what are the emotional and behavioral impacts of this recurring over their career? I would argue that it drives one of two types or sets of behavioral responses.
The first set of responses can fuel them to chase the high of the adrenaline rush. They attempt to maintain the high while off duty, and it can play out with a subconscious approach to create excitement or chaos, fall into addictions, act in risky behaviors, and self-sabotage themselves or their relationships. Specifically, these addictions or behaviors manifest as gambling, sex, affairs, pornography, risky hobbies, abuse of medications, financial irresponsibility, hypervigilance, irritability, anxiety, low self-regulation, and decreased self-awareness or accountability.
The alternative behavioral set of responses may be that emergency responders become so flooded and overstimulated by the repetitive adrenaline dump that it leads them to physiologically crash. Once this occurs, the behaviors may appear as isolation or withdrawal, shutting down or shutting out, disconnection, distraction, dissociation, poor cognitive ability, extreme fatigue, poor self-care, depression, or even suicide ideations.
In response to the possible risks factors of adrenaline addiction and fatigue, it is therefore crucial that emergency responders and their departments become equipped by increasing awareness, promoting psychoeducation and resiliency training, partnering with mental health professionals who are efficient with the culture and adverse trauma effects, engaging in healthy behavioral health tactics, and putting protocols in place to promote all emergency responders to actively address and seek supportive mental health services to sustain their careers of service.
Lona Snell, MEd
Licensed Professional Counselor
Texas
