- October 31, 2024
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Firefighters may return from their missions with injuries beyond what civilians associate with the dangers of fire and smoke. For dealing with anything from post-traumatic stress to family issues, the personnel of Palm Coast’s fire department can speak with Fire Chaplain Christopher Cottle.
Cottle, also a driver engineer and EMT, a firefighter for over 17 years, did not plan to take on the department’s chaplaincy himself. When he had the idea for a chaplaincy program in July, he said, he made a list of the traits an ideal chaplain would have and presented it to Fire Chief Jerry Forte.
Forte appointed Cottle instead.
“Chris felt he had a calling to do something bigger than himself,” Forte said. “When you’ve got folks running into burning buildings to save people, there must be something higher than themselves for them to rely on.”
But not, Forte and Cottle were clear, in a pushy or proselytizing way.
“My job is not to walk down the hallway hitting people with the Bible,” said Cottle of his approach to counseling his peers. “My job is to make sure they’re mentally and spiritually whole.”
“People subjected to unusually high stress levels need extra stability,” said Deputy Chief Bradd Clark.
Cottle is quick to emphasize that the program is not all him: He has two aides who assist with logistics and matters of mental health, and he is building a list of counselors of different faiths who can provide assistance for firefighters who practice any of the plethora of religions found in the department.
He goes from station to station for visits with their personnel, but he does not normally initiate one-on-one conversations—people come to him. It is not always a matter of spiritual crisis, Cottle said. Sometimes they just want to vent about family, about finances.
And about the missions. Firefighters may return from calls which reminded them of someone they knew. Those who live in the community they serve may in fact respond to calls from people they know. Or it may simply be a wrenching pediatric call.
The analogy of the backpack is used in the department: First responders start out in their line of work hiking with an empty backpack. Every encounter with something disturbing throws a pebble into it, increasing from ounces to many pounds.
A chaplain’s job is not to take the pebbles out of their backpacks, Cottle said, but to help them support the weight while they figure out which healthy coping mechanisms will allow them to shed the weight a bit at a time.
“It’s a burden you carry,” Clark said. “We just sit and talk about the burden, and the body and mind’s response. And it doesn’t have to be a formal ceremony; it could be over ice cream. No one thing cures, it’s a holistic approach.”
It isn’t usually during the mission that trauma will spring upon them, Cottle said, but afterward, in the slow stretches of a shift when memories will rise like smoke from rubble. The emergence of mental strain’s toll when one has time to think is what can make retirement so hazardous. According to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, more firefighters died by suicide between 2014 and 2017 than in the line of duty.
Forte said he thinks of the chaplaincy program as the third leg of a stool holding up the department: mind, body and soul need to be kept in good health for firefighters to not only retire, but make it through retirement.
Most importantly, it gives them people to talk to who understand in a way civilians can’t, not even trained counselors.
“We’re a very close-knit, tight community,” Cottle said. “I have walked where they’ve walked, I’ve done what they’ve done. I’ve got an in that pretty much nobody else can get unless they’ve been in that position.”
He and the fire chiefs did say, however, that the program is open to the personnel’s family and spouses, to help them navigate the unique familial and social stresses of their loved ones’ line of work.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Forte of the program’s effect on the department. “If I’ve got something on my mind, I’ve got no problem talking to Chris.”
