I served as the Catholic chaplain for 10 years at Strong Memorial Hospital. I continue to provide support to people in times of trauma. Chief Fluker asked me to make a presentation to help his first responders cope with a trauma response and there story was published by the Batavian and Batavia Daily News.
Chief Jeff Fluker, right, is joined by Bethany firefighters at the department’s fire hall. The department recently provided training to help its members deal with the potential traumas they might encounter. Courtesy of Dr. Matt Kawiak
by Matt Surtel, Batavia News Editor
BETHANY — If you’ve spent enough time as a first responder, you’ll likely see some terrible things. Rolling up to a car accident, you might see one or more fatalities. You might respond to fatal fires or witness a neighbor’s death from a medical emergency.
It’s traumatic.
Those realities are why the Bethany Fire Department offered a trauma response program for its members, providing some basic training in case they ever experience the worst.
“Some of these guys have never seen it before,” said Chief Jeff Fluker during the recent training session. “They’ve never been through it.
“There’s only a very few of us ... who have been through it,” he continued, naming some of the old members. “But some of the other guys, even though they’ve been in awhile, haven’t seen it.”
The department recently met with Dr. Matt Kawiak, a town resident who specializes in crisis counseling. He discussed the realities of stress in first responders, along with ways to find help if needed. Trauma doesn’t need to be from a single, awful incident. It can also arise from repeated exposures to bad situations — the kind of thing firefighters, ambulance crews and police deal with regularly.
For the Bethany Fire Department, that’s often meant responses to “Suicide Corners,” the notorious intersection at Route 20 and Bethany Center Road that’s been the site of serious accidents for decades.
“Down here at Suicide Corners, there’s always something that happens and you don’t know what you’re going to get when you get there,” Fluker said. “The cars that you see, the vehicles are completely destroyed. The last one we had, (the drivers and passengers) were fine, but you look at the vehicles, they were destroyed — the front end was just taken right off the thing.”
First responders are usually able to cope, but horrific incidents, lack of processing time between events, long hours and fatigue can overwhelm even a hardened person’s ability to respond.
Fluker and Second Assistant Chief Jeff Wolak are experienced responders — Fluker has 33 or 34 years with the department, while Wolak has 20. They remember one particular fatal accident years ago. It was an ugly scene in which a vehicle burned and several people died.
“It was my first one and you’re just like ‘What’s going on? ‘” Fluker said. “At the time they had stress debriefers come out and they talked to you about the situation, and what happened and what you saw, and ‘How do you feel?’ and things like that.
“But to this day today, I can sit right here and still see it, you know?” he continued. Wolak remembers a similar accident in which he was the first to arrive and again, people were dead and scattered. He also noted the reality of placing the deceased in body bags.
“How do you deal with it?” he asked. “You do.”
Kawiak’s program addressed stress, trauma and the effects, both physical and emotional. Burnout, suppressed emotions and damaged relationships are among the risks.
Departments might also experience turnover among valued responders. Among other factors,
Kawiak’s program addressed being able to ask for help when a responder finds himself or herself getting overwhelmed. It also gave “in the moment” tools which hopefully allow responders to function in the moment and respond later.
Such events can be tough for responders to discuss, Fluker said. They like to talk to personnel within a week of a traumatic response, such as a “watch-and-see” effect. That might include calling a newer member, checking in on them, and gauging their “rhythm.” If a person seems “off” or is having difficulties, they can call a trauma team to see what can be done.
“You’ve got to pay attention to everybody to see what’s going on and make sure they’re doing the best they can,” he said.
Fluker believes it’s an area which hasn’t really advanced over the years for first responders. And you simply don’t know who will or won’t be affected. “You can think that the biggest, toughest, hard guy out there would be the guy for it, and he could be the worst,” Fluker said.
“It all depends on how a person handles stress,” Wolak added. “Some people handle it and other people don’t. Training helps, but it’s not going to help when putting somebody in a body bag, or you’re trying to fight a major fire and there might be somebody in it. Like Jeff said, you never know.”
That’s why they invited Kawiak for his program. What is the fire department hoping to impart for its personnel? “I guess probably if they know a pre-plan, if you will, on what to expect,” Fluker said. “Nobody’s ever really prepared for it, but at least this will give them something of what to expect, and maybe after it, that there’s people out there they can talk to, to see what the aftermath is.
“How bad was this person traumatized after seeing it?” he continued. “That there’s somebody there who can help a little better.”
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends and keep safe all our First Responders who volunteer and risk their lives to keep us safe from harm and moments of trauma.
