“I think I hit my limit,” he said, his eyes misty, sitting in a pickup truck covered in pink retardant dropped by the firefighting planes.
As a one-time drug rehab counselor who has seen first responders grapple with trauma in the aftermath of a tragedy, he knows enough to see that he is at risk now.
“I just kind of stirred up a dormant beast in me, and I’m just gonna have to be really careful.”
Get treatment early
With at least 24 people dead and tens of thousands displaced by fires that continue to smoulder, the last eight days will leave a lasting mark on America’s second biggest city.
From the initial panicked evacuation to the terrible firefight that saw hydrants run dry, the opening day of the disaster was just the beginning.
Thousands of people have seen their homes reduced to ashes. And even those whose homes were spared have been heartbroken by the ruin of their neighborhoods.
Psychotherapist Sonnet Daymont said the mental health impacts will also extend to teenagers in the city who have been glued to rolling imagery of the unfolding carnage, or to people who live outside the diaster zone but who have watched their city burn.
“There is such a thing as survivor’s guilt and vicarious trauma,” she told AFP in her Pasadena office, where she offers free sessions to those affected.
