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Malibu surfside news | January 24, 2019 | 11
Firefighters Down offers lift to ailing first responders
Nonprofit shares
common warning signs,
techniques for recovery
Barbara Burke, Freelance Reporter
At the end of the day, firefighters
are humans.
On the heels of the Woolsey
Fire, Malibu Surfside News sat
down with representatives of Firefighters
Down — a nonprofit organization
that provides support
to firefighters and their loved ones
when firefighters experience the
effects of traumas they see and address
— to learn more about how
first responders are coping.
“That fire was a beast and firefighters
need to deal with the fact
that they felt defeated by it,” said
Capt. Mike Henry, co-founder of
Firefighters Down.
Henry noted that “everyone
reacts differently to stress,” but
those who may benefit from assistance
often have interruptions
in their sleep patterns (either too
much or too little). Another warning
sign is when the individual
has an inability to remember an
important aspect of a traumatic
event. Symptoms also may include
having an altered sense of
reality, or experiencing recurrent
nightmares, Henry added.
Firefighters grieve with the victims
they assist, explained Master
Zi Malonga, of the Dharma Health
Institute, one of the professionals
who helps the nonprofit address
the needs of firefighters and their
families.
“When firefighters see many
instances of people suffering total
losses of all their belongings and
they help in tragedy after tragedy
after tragedy, they lose something
with the victims they are helping,”
Malonga said. “The effect
of such loss on them is cumulative
and a human being can only take
so much. Firefighters have to find
a way to decompress and have a
release valve so they can return to
normalcy.”
Malonga provides tai chi and
(Left to right) Dr. Stephen Johnson, master drummer Christo Pellani, Capt. Mike Henry and firefighter Ernie Marquez play drums as part of
an exercise with area nonprofit Firefighters Down. The organization is currently working to coordinate a couples retreat for firefighters who
fought the Woolsey Fire last November. Photo Submitted
qigong, martial arts methods that
help one control breathing. Such
approaches “provide ways to disperse
the vast grief in the firefighters’
bodies,” he said.
Firefighters Down also focuses
on helping family members of
firefighters understand their loved
one’s trauma because those closest
to them are often the ones to first
see signs of stress.
“Firefighters who have dealt
with great trauma from helping
many Woolsey victims who lost
their homes had to go home to
an intact home and try to manage
the normalcy of their own lives,”
Malonga said. “They may have a
higher situational awareness, and
their intensity leads to stress in the
family.”
Henry agreed, noting that it is
hard for firefighters who fought
the Woolsey Fire to deal with the
“When firefighters see many instances of people suffering
total losses of all their belongings and they help in tragedy
after tragedy after tragedy, they lose something with the
victims they are helping.”
Master Zi Malonga — a health and wellness professional who aids firefighters through area
nonprofit Firefighters Down
fact that so many structures and
several lives were lost.
“We’re supposed to save people
and their homes,” he said. “It’s
tough that we lost many rounds in
this battle.”
Although the Woolsey Fire
brings the issue of firefighters’
stress to a forefront, such concerns
are ongoing.
“People don’t realize that our
biggest stresses sometimes come
from responding to calls dealing
with everything except fires, such
as being first on the scenes of murders,
drowned babies and sudden
infant death syndrome,” Henry
said.
Divorce, suicide, and posttraumatic
stress disorder incidents
are all increased in the firefighting
community, Henry stated, citing
several sources, some of which
are discussed on the organization’s
website.
Firefighters Down provides
several services for firefighters
and their families.
Katie Cooper-Lapidus, a holistic
health practitioner for Firefighters
Down, aims to help firefighters
Please see firefighters, 13