Flames Gone, but Stress Isn’t for Firefighters

Local firefighters, weary of the dizzying pace of blazes they have had to battle both here and in Malibu, have asked for assistance from a county stress-counseling team to help them work through the tension.

“We’re already starting to see some stress built up,” Laguna Beach Battalion Chief Joe McClure said. “I even feel it myself.”

It’s easy to see why, considering the chaos in the last two weeks.

Laguna Beach Fire Capt. Tom King and firefighter Patrick Brennan had barely rested from fighting the flames that devastated parts of their own community when they found themselves heading for the destructive blaze in the Calabasas-Malibu area.

As in the week before, the Laguna Beach firefighters spent about 18 hours straight without much of a break on Tuesday and Wednesday, battling flames even worse than the ones they had experienced at home.

By Thursday morning, they were back on duty in Laguna Beach, ready for whatever would come next.

“Actually, I don’t feel too bad,” said King, 50, a 22-year veteran of the Laguna Beach Fire Department. “I’m surprised.”

Added Brennan, 39, who has also been fighting fires for 22 years: “We’ve really lost track of the hours this past week. It’s amazing.”

Since the fires started in Anaheim Hills and Laguna Beach, firefighters throughout the county have had to battle not only flames but the physical and mental stress that comes with the job.

As if the fires here weren’t bad enough, more than 400 firefighters from Orange County were sent last week to help in the Calabasas-Malibu fire.

The long, demanding hours have taken a toll.

As a result, McClure said he put in a request for a special county team to help firefighters talk about any stress they might be feeling.

One Laguna firefighter lost a home in the fire, while many others had friends who lost everything.

Michael Wellins, a psychotherapist for the Orange Police Department, coordinates the special Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team, which has visited the Orange County Fire Department station at Emerald Bay.

The county’s 2-year-old team comprises about 20 trained peer counselors. Most come not from the ranks of health professionals but from local fire departments. Battalion chiefs, dispatchers and other employees offer a friendly ear to colleagues.

“What we’re consistently seeing is these men and women are busting their guts trying to save so many things,” Wellins said. “They’re very sensitive to being successful, but also to the homes they lost.”

Wellins pointed to Emerald Bay, where 55 homes were lost to the fire, out of an estimated 750 in the area.

“The reality of the firestorm is they could have lost 750 homes,” he said. “But as professionals, they do not notice the 750 they saved, but rivet their attention on the ones they lost.”

Symptoms are varied, Wellins said. Some can be extreme.

People responding to emergencies have their adrenaline pumping in such large doses that they get the shakes. Others, Wellins said, are gripped by recurring images of a particularly powerful image that sticks with them from a fire.

“It could be a crying woman, or a family picture the firefighter saw burn up in a residential blaze and could not do a thing about,” he said.

Then there are those firefighters who are overwhelmed by the amount of work and what they’ve been doing, Wellins said.

“There are more calls nowadays for medical aid, as opposed to fire. An event like this taxes both of those provider hats,” he said. “And it causes a big potential for being overwhelmed.”

Adding to the stress is the sheer pace of the extensive fire-hopping around Southern California that firefighters have done recently, giving them a feeling of being out of touch and isolated, Wellins said.

“Take a look at some firefighters and what they did,” he said. “They worked the Stagecoach fire in Anaheim Hills, then went to Laguna, and they were also up to Ventura. Many then responded to Los Angeles for the Malibu fire. Their calls and demands have been consistent and constant for about eight or nine days.”

The recommendation? Simple, Wellins said.

“We recommend resting techniques, appropriate diet, exercise and ventilation--that is, talking to people who they feel comfortable with, and usually this can be their peers. Venting helps relieve the stress.”

That was the case in Emerald Bay.

Jim Waddell, 32, grew up spending weekends and summers in Emerald Bay at the home of his grandparents. His father built the home, and later inherited it. Five years ago, Waddell equipped the shake roof of the family’s summer home with sprinklers.

Now an operations manager for Bank of America, Waddell also knows about fire danger, earning $7 an hour as a paid-for-service fire captain with the Orange County Fire Department at its Emerald Bay station.

On that fateful Wednesday when a firestorm swept through Emerald Bay, the day would end with three psychological counselors in the fire station, trying to help the firefighters relax.

For some, the fire was personally devastating. Two of the 55 destroyed homes belonged to volunteer firefighters. One of them belonged to Waddell’s best friend.

The 25 members of the Emerald Bay fire station had a “debriefing” session with three counselors after the fire was declared contained. The counselors were there to help the firefighters ward off guilt and anger “that we couldn’t save a lot of these homes,” Waddell said.

“We did the best we could with the resources we had, and that sometimes plays mind games on you,” he said. “I was the captain. Did I do the best I could with 10 firefighters and the resources I had? You can second-guess yourself and it is real easy to do that in this business.”

During the session, firefighters in the group took turns sharing stories about the fire, trading recollections of what Waddell called “the amazing things that took place that none of us had ever experienced.”

“For me, I’ve been to a place where one home burned to the ground, but 55?” he said. “The counselors said that there was a possibility that we will dream in the next three days of a fire coming of this magnitude and burning us up, and they were hoping that this discussion would maybe reduce the chances of that.”

Orange County Fire Capt. Don Hayden, a veteran of 21 years, has fought some big fires in the past, but never one like the Laguna blaze.

“The physical stress hits you pretty quick,” he said, “but somehow you can reach down and just keep going.”

The emotional stress usually comes much later and in many different ways.

It came for Hayden and his crew last Monday morning, when students, parents and teachers at El Morro Elementary School gave them a long, standing ovation during a morning flag-raising ceremony. A fire command center had been established at the school.

“I started crying,” said Hayden, 47. “There were chief officers there who had been around a lot longer than I have who had tears in their eyes. We’re usually never appreciated like that. To have that kind of welcome . . . you knew the emotions were really coming out.”

Part of the emotion for Hayden also came from the realization that many of the children in front of him had lost their homes in the fire.

“It really hit everyone there real hard,” he said. “Until then, the homes were lost by people we didn’t know. And here were a bunch of kids we did get to know. That was the time when I knew the emotional stress and the mental stress was there.”

Anaheim Fire Department Division Chief Steve Magliocco said he will probably bring in the stress-counseling team for his firefighters, many of whom fought in all the major Southland fires.

Although an estimated 366 homes were destroyed in Orange County, many more were saved and no one was killed. Magliocco thinks that will help firefighters cope well with the stress.

“It’s rewarding to go in there and take the training you have and work hard for 12, 14, 16 or up to 20 hours and see positive results,” he said. “That’s why we do it.”

Times staff writer Nancy Wride contributed to this report.