COUNTYWIDE : Fire Chaplains Try to Rekindle Hope

When a fire strikes, claiming property and even lives, the Ventura County Fire Department does more than extinguish the blaze.

A fire chaplain is also present to ease the trauma for all those involved.

“They’re there to take that burden off the firefighters,” Deputy Chief Robert Holaway said.

Officially known as the Critical Incident Trauma Debriefing Team, the two county fire chaplains are both Protestant ministers.

However, Chaplain John Greenlee said: “I’m not selling these people religion. It’s a matter of concern for people. I’m not trying to thump them on the head with religion.”

The two volunteer chaplains have radios in their cars and their homes to monitor fire activity, and they arrive wearing firefighters’ coats and hats.

Greenlee described a recent incident in which he went to a retirement home that had been evacuated because residents detected the smell of gas. It was a cold night and Greenlee said it was his job to reassure the residents who had to mill around outside while firefighters investigated. In this case, no fire resulted.

In other, more serious instances, the chaplains are also on hand to calm the firefighters themselves. “You always think, was there maybe more I could have done,” said Holaway, referring to firefighters’ mental state, especially if someone is hurt or dies in the blaze.

“We sit and talk with the personnel involved, and let the thing loose,” Greenlee said. “It’s a ventilation thing.”

Greenlee has been a fire chaplain in Ventura County for 14 years, and has also been a volunteer firefighter. He is the pastor of Westlake Community Christian Church in Thousand Oaks.

The other chaplain, Steve Day, is the pastor of the Community Christian Church in Moorpark. He has been a chaplain for four years.

The two also serve as liaisons between the Fire Department and the Red Cross, when necessary. The Red Cross program provides fire victims money, shelter, and replacements for some household items lost in the blaze--”the essentials of getting back to normal living again,” said Lenore Gabel, Red Cross director of public support.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department has five paid department captains active in their churches who serve as volunteer chaplains, said Linda Seltzer, a spokeswoman for the department.

Of Ventura County’s five fire departments, only the County Fire Department and the one in Santa Paula have fire chaplains. The Santa Paula Fire Department started a program modeled after the county’s in 1989, Chief Paul Skeels said.

“It was a need that was there and we really didn’t know it,” Skeels said. Before the chaplain program began, he said, “in a manner of speaking, we just left the victim standing there.”