Firefighters who’ve developed PTSD helping others learn to help themselves

Richard Stack, a firefighter in North Attleboro, Mass., wound up at the center after he got into his car, turned on the engine in his closed garage and tried to quietly take his life — twice.

Stack said he was overcome by panic attacks, anxiety and flashbacks from his 26 years on the job. He would go by old scenes and replay in his mind gruesome incidents. Certain smells and songs that reminded him of traumatic calls would set him off. And after some calls, he'd get back to the firehouse, go to his office and have a complete breakdown.

The stress at work rippled into problems at home. "A combination of those calls took bits and pieces from me," said Stack, 49.

With the support of his chief, union and family, Stack stayed at the center for 45 days. He found a place where he didn't have to explain himself or be ashamed. The people there knew what it felt like to experience the heat of a burning building crumbling around them or the crunch of glass under fire boots as they pulled people from car wrecks.

"The peer support was tremendous," said Stack, who left the center in October. "No one is judging you. We were dealing with the same suffering and emotional pain."

"You don't come out perfect," Fessenden said, but you learn how to cope.

A bell for “ringing out” successfully treated clients. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

During a July 4 kickball game in a clearing in the woods with the other firefighters, Fessenden began getting the same anxious feeling he'd experience before snapping at his family during their hikes along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. With his guard down at the center, he realized a musty smell from a dead deer in the woods nearby reminded him of pulling dead, deteriorating bodies out of the Potomac River in Cabin John, Md., years ago.

Now when he is on hikes, he recognizes the smell and cracks a joke instead of flying into what before was inexplicable anger.