Leah has been a firefighter for just a whisker short of two decades. Heck, that's a lot of fires. But it's not just fires that Leah is fighting now... it's PTSD (or PTSI as many of us prefer to identified it as the 'injury' it is rather than 'disorder') and the invisible chaos that's been building up beneath the surface.
\nIt's not the flames that take their toll on firefighters, it's all the stuff that us non-firefighters don't even realise these courageous humans front up to face any given day on the job.
\nThe suicides, the tragedies, the turmoil... I mean, if you're anything like I was before working closely with first responders you don't even so much as think about who picks up the pieces 'literally' when disaster strikes. Who removes the noose from a long since breathing neck? Who picks up the disembodied limb from a train incident gone awfully wrong?
\nLeah did. Other firefighters do. They don't just 'save lives' they see face death in the most visceral forms... Then of course, often head home to their families, throwing the emotional response to each experience into the metaphorical washing machine with their uniforms ready to put on a fresh one for the next shift.
\nBig thanks to Leah for sharing some of her experience with us today.
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\nLEAH ROGERS
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