By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — While there is certainly an unimaginable emotional toll on the victims of Saturday's fire, it is also taking a physical and emotional toll on fire crews.
Most were out for several days with limited breaks during Saturday's fire and were just as busy two weeks earlier with the Albright and Linksland events. Fire Chief Steve Beer says his department is tired.
“I can tell, they’re beat, they’re tired, they’re exhausted. Right now I’m more worried about the mental aspect of my employees,” Beer said. “We’re a young department. Almost 55% of my department is under five years experience. And again it's something these men and women do . . . the average public citizen has no idea what they just went through.”
Beer says the city has special programs in place to help first responders and firefighters deal with such events.
“The City of Hutchinson does have a program that is called Impact, where they have a core group of Wichita therapists that come in and they have one-on-one sessions with employees,” Beer said. “Recovering a body, stuff like that, it’s just not normal.” Beer says many changes have been made to make sure the well-being of law enforcement, first responders and firefighters are met.
“Years ago in the fire service . . . you did it and you just moved on. And we just had ways of dealing with different things,” Beer said. “That way is no longer acceptable. We value and we have to make sure we take care of our number one asset, our employees.”
The fire department also wanted to again thank all of the outside resources that have been made available through VOAD and the United Way.
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