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(Photo: Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Lakewood Colorado’s West Metro Fire Allowed FOX31Nicole Fierro’s look at the department’s new way of proactively dealing with their firefighters’ fears – therapy dogs.
One of their therapy dogs, Remmey, serves the community through a hero for their heroes; protecting the mental health of firefighters with comfort and decompression.
Station Captain Reed Norwood explained that West Metro Fire takes firefighters’ mental health seriously and that Remmey plays an important role in providing comfort and therapy.
Making Firefighter Mental Health a Priority
This crew of West Metro firefighters is en route to Northern California where they will assist in one of at least 25 fires currently burning in that state. Nearly 2.4 million acres burned and 3,200 structures lost in CA so far this year. #2021fire season pic.twitter.com/BBx45I8rXK
— WestMetroFire (@WestMetroFire) September 24, 2021
Last year, West Metro Fire received more than 35,000 calls, 70 percent of which were medical, Fierro reported.
“Over time, those calls add up a bit, and the stress can increase for our firefighters,” said station captain Norwood.
“If there’s a kid we run on that might be the same age or the same clothes as our kids, it’s connected to our own families, which are especially hard to handle.”
Norwood’s commitment to the mental health of his firefighters is commendable, as dealing with such things was once totally unheard of in such a profession.
“Years ago we would just put a lid on it and not get involved in things,” Norwood said. “We wouldn’t deal with the stress, we wouldn’t deal with the fear. Now we are starting to use all kinds of tools for our firefighters to use.”
Who is Remmey and how does she help?
Remmey is actually Norwood’s own family member; a three-and-a-half-year-old Irish Setter. She is one of two therapy dogs recently adopted into the West Metro Fire Department family, with more in training.
They work with the firefighters all day, waiting for their return from putting out fires, ready to offer what canine companions offer like no other.
When Norwood clocks in for a two-day shift, so does Remmey.
“I get up at about 4:30 in the morning to go to work, and she just knows it’s a work day, so she gets excited and jumps in the truck and gets to work,” Norwood said, continuing to tell how big of a difference he believes she makes to his firefighters.
“She just knows who needs her, and she’ll just sit with them, and they’ll pet her and love her,” he said. “There is such a history of dogs in the fire station, but in the past 50 [to] 60 years, that’s just gone. So to have that back is extremely beneficial.”
If your dog can provide therapy like Remmey, you can try registering him as a therapy dog. DogTime has a full manual for registering your pet as a certified therapy animal here!
Do you think therapy dogs can help firefighters deal with the stress of work? Should more fire stations follow in the footsteps of West Metro? Let us know in the comments below!
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