(quick tempo piano music)
(siren wails)
- The modern firefighter gets called for everything.
Our job is all about interaction with the public
and interaction on their worst day.
I've been a professional firefighter for 29 years.
Do you feel faint at all?
Seeing that level of human tragedy, the car accident
or a shooting or a murder, it takes a toll.
You have to put up a front because you might
go right back out again.
The stuff that's going on with you right now are typical
of a car wreck.
And the idea is that you want to be able to do your job.
That's the mantra, I'm good to go, I'm ready.
Like they say in the Marine Corps when you're ready to go
out and do another job, good to go.
I am in 100 different kinds of distress.
Stuff is coming back to me from Desert Storm,
some stuff from childhood, are starting to surface,
and I'm doing everything I can to keep it tamped down.
If you're a police officer, or a firefighter, or a
first responder of any kind, you will see things
that you can't unsee.
We ignore it, but they're ticking time bombs, and if we
don't learn ways to deal with that stress, to work with
that stress, eventually it's all going to catch up to you.
And I've been that guy.
I've been that guy up until the point
that it almost killed me.
I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii.
I was the Healthy Baby of Hawaii 1965.
Yeah, I was all that back then.
Then after high school, I joined the Marine Corps.
When I transitioned from active duty, I went right into
the fire department, and at the same time went into
the Marine Corps Reserve.
I have four combat tours: Operation Desert Shield,
Desert Storm, Bosnia, and then Iraq and Afghanistan.
As I went along in my journey, my daughter went into
the Army, and my son went in the Marine Corps,
and I was at work on June 14th, 2008, and as I'm putting
on my gear, I heard my friend say, "You're out of service."
And just then I saw two Marines pull up, and they said,
"We regret to inform you that your son has been killed
"in action in Afghanistan."
And from there, things kind of just went to a blur.
I was running away from dealing with my problems.
I was drinking a lot, my marriage was ending, suicidal.
I was reaching my breaking point.
(motorcycle starts)
And you look for those things that are going to keep
you going for another day.
Sometimes they don't make sense.
Sometimes it's my coworkers, what are they going to think?
What happens if I am the one who suicided?
(footsteps crunching)
It got me to this point where I finally
started getting help.
Without these outside influences saying, "Mike, you need
"some help; Mike, you need to take care of Mike,"
that I probably wouldn't be here right now.
I don't want another firefighter to be in this situation
where I was.
The way to do that was to just lay myself out,
and just say, "Here it is."
We're going to talk a little bit about the Seattle
Fire Department's Critical Incident Stress Management
Team, and what we do.
The goal of this team is to keep firefighters,
and our paramedics, in the fight.
To help them relieve the stress by talking through
some of the stressful incidences that they've been on
as a means to keep them on the job and healthy.
- When they hear Mike's story in the beginnings of their
careers, it starts to tell them from day one that it's
okay, we know you're going to be stressed out, but if you
are, and you are having some challenges, we have some tools
for you that's going to help you through this.
That's so important for us as a profession.
- In March of 2014, a massive mudslide affected the
communities of Oso and Darrington.
When I pulled up, houses as far as I could see were
not there, they had disappeared.
43 people were killed during the slide.
Some of our firefighters lost family members during the
event, so it was very traumatic.
Because of the mudslide, I had some emotional issues, lost
confidence in my ability to lead, had marital difficulties.
Talking to Mike made me go down a better road than
I might have otherwise chosen.
This is a guy that understands exactly where I'm at
because he's already been there.
He's gone through this, so I trust him.
Here, look at my tattoo.
- That's another good one.
- Semper fi, Mack.
My son was with two seven in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Doing this confidentially, I think it would lack the impact.
I'm a better person, I'm a better counselor, I'm a better
firefighter because I'm able to say those things out loud.
I'd like to get you up to the hospital and get you hydrated
in a nice bed, a nice, safe spot.
That is the most important thing, is to get that word out
to every firefighter on every fire engine, and let them
know this doesn't have to be you, that it's okay
to talk about it.
That's the first line of defense.
Alright, semper fi.
Yes, sir. Be well.
Alright. (lift whines)
(energetic music)