The fire service is losing more people to suicide than to fire. And most Chiefs are not prepared for the call.
A fire department is three times more likely in any given year to lose a firefighter to suicide than to a line of duty death.
Read that again.
Three times more likely.
That number comes from the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF). And according to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, only about 40% of firefighter suicides are ever reported. Which means the real number is likely more than twice what we see.
We are losing people at a scale this profession has never fully looked in the eye. And most departments — including mine — thought they were doing okay until the moment they were not.
WHAT I THOUGHT PREPARED LOOKED LIKE
When I was Fire Chief I believed we had done the work.
Peer support team in place. Resources available to every member. Training completed. We had checked the boxes that most departments never even get to.
I thought we were prepared.
Then I got the call.
Every chief knows the calls that change you. This was one of them.
A department member had been found right on the edge of taking their life. The plan was in place. The preparations were complete.
Two coworkers showed up at the right moment and disrupted it.
I do not have words for what I felt hearing that news. Grateful does not cover it. Relief does not cover it. And underneath both of those was something I was not expecting — the realization that I had been wrong about how prepared we were.
We mobilized every resource available — local, state, and national — and had that member on a plane for 45 days of inpatient treatment.
I am grateful to tell you they came home. They got the help they needed. They are still here.
I do not know if I handled it the right way. I am still not sure. What I know is that we moved fast, we used everything available, and we did not let pride or process slow us down when someone's life was on the line.
"Silence can be deadly, because it is interpreted as a lack of acceptance and thus morphs into a barrier that prevents first responders from accessing potentially life-saving mental health services." — Ruderman Family Foundation
THE CULTURE THAT CONTRIBUTES TO IT
The fire service has a pride problem. And I say that as someone who loves this profession.
We built a culture around strength, endurance, and the idea that the people who run into burning buildings do not need to ask for help. That identity — which serves us on the fireground — becomes a liability when a member is drowning in something they cannot put out with a hose line.
The stigma is real. It lives in the comments made in passing about people who went to counseling. It lives in the locker room conversation after a bad call where nobody asks how anyone is doing. It lives in the chief who sends out the wellness program flyer and never once talks about mental health in a meeting.
We have built programs. We have not yet built a culture where using those programs feels safe.
That is the gap. And it is killing people.
WHAT THE RESEARCH TELLS US CHIEFS ARE MISSING
1. Firefighters are significantly more likely than the general population to experience PTSD — and less likely to have been formally diagnosed before a crisis occurs.
2. The most prevalent method of suicide among firefighters is firearm — a fact that has direct implications for how departments approach lethal means counseling and access.
3. Nearly 50% of firefighters report suicidal thoughts at some point in their career according to a Florida State University study of more than 1,000 firefighters. Half. The person next to you on the rig is not immune.
4. Suicide is dramatically underreported in the fire service. The real number may be more than twice the official count.
5. Having a peer support program does not mean your culture is safe. Programs and culture are not the same thing. One is a policy. The other is built shift by shift.
WHAT CHIEFS MUST DO — STARTING TOMORROW
Not next quarter. Not after the next training cycle. Tomorrow.
1. Talk about it openly and by name. Not wellness. Not behavioral health resources. Suicide. Use the word in a meeting. Model that it can be said out loud in your department.
2. Know your resources before you need them. Have the numbers saved. Know who your peer support contacts are. Know the nearest inpatient facility that serves first responders. Build the plan before the call comes.
3. Create a culture where the people around a struggling member feel safe enough to say something. The two people who saved a life in my department were not trained counselors. They were coworkers who paid attention and acted. That culture does not build itself.
4. Check in after hard calls. Not with a flyer. With a conversation. Walk into the bay. Ask how people are doing. Mean it.
5. Remove the stigma from the top down. If you have never talked about your own hard days, your people will never talk about theirs. Vulnerability from leadership is not weakness. It is permission.
REFLECTION PROMPTS
• When did you last say the word suicide out loud in a leadership meeting?
• Does your department have a plan — a real, detailed, actionable plan — for the call you hope never comes?
• What would a member of your department have to believe to feel safe asking for help? Does your culture support that belief?
• Who on your crew are you watching right now and saying nothing to?
You will get the call eventually. The only question is whether you built the culture and the plan before it came.
If you or someone in your department is struggling right now — these resources exist for exactly this moment. Use them.
Call or text 988. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
1-206-459-3020. Confidential crisis line built specifically for first responders and their families.
First Responder Support Network
firestormsupport.org — Peer support and residential programs built for fire and EMS.
National Volunteer Fire Council
nvfc.org/help — Fire and EMS specific mental health resources and crisis support.
Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance
ffbha.org — Data, resources, and support specifically for firefighter mental health.
𝗗𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆.
Chief Chris Armstrong, The Thinking Chief Leadership Group