MANCHESTER, Mo. – Behind every emergency responder is a face, a name, and most certainly, emotions.
“You focus on that job,” West County EMS and Fire Captain Kevin Smith said. “You focus on that work and you deal with the emotions afterwards.”
Dealing with emotions for the West County firefighters is done in the kitchen.
“A lot of emotions come out at that table,” Smith explained.
While West County EMS and firefighters have access to a chaplain, critical incident stress debriefing, peer support groups and a chance to go to the International Association of Firefighters Center of Excellence in Maryland, it’s the kitchen table where most of the healing is done.
“We spend a third of our year here together as a family. It’s kind of our family away from our family,” Smith said.
The scenes these firefighters encounter every day can take a toll, but the ones that do the most damage are the ones that hit close to home, according to Smith.
“I ran a car accident where a child’s hurt, and I have the same age group at home and it really kind of strikes that maybe that could have been your child,” he said.
Smith and his firehouse try their best to learn from fatal fires like the one earlier this week that killed a mother and her four children.
“We go out and we pre plan buildings for exactly that,” Smith explained. “How would we handle a fire in that house or how would we handle a fire in that building for exactly those times? Because when you train, you are ready to go and that’s what we do—we train so we are ready.”