2 page essay on describing Fire Emergency Services (FES) organization progressive health and safety program.

Unit VI Project Background Information

Over a period of time, a firefighter started showing significant signs of stress in social and work situations.

He was having problems going about his normal daily tasks, even at home, after experiencing a horrific

trauma and life-threatening incident that left negative images in his mind. Many veteran firefighters had

experienced the same type of incidents; however, over time, they dealt with these types of incidents

through the use of alcohol, which left some of them with substance abuse and addiction issues. After

several weeks of being unable to sleep, he started to show signs of irritation and anger. He commented to

some veteran firefighters that whenever he had free time, he had unwanted intrusive thoughts about the

traumatic events.

In addition, he was experiencing stress from the lack of advancement. For the last 5 years, no one had

been hired, and he was always considered the new firefighter by the veteran firefighters. He was always

assigned menial tasks of cleaning the bathrooms, wiping up oil on the apparatus bay, washing the dishes,

and waking early to make sure coffee was made as the veteran firefighters sat in the recliner chairs.

During a recent visit from several chief officers, the veteran firefighters assigned him tasks so he would

not interact with the chief officers. Before leaving the room, he complained to one of the chief officers

about the negative conditions and behavior toward new firefighters. The chief officer laughed and stated,

“This builds cohesiveness; after all, we had to endure the same thing when we were newbie firefighters.”

Over the next few days, the stress continued to build, and then one day, he woke up very agitated and

blew up when his wife confronted him about what was wrong. In a fit of rage, he grabbed his personal gun

and shot her and his two children. He got in his car, drove to Fire Station 1 (the headquarters for his fire

department), and walked down the hall, randomly shooting at chief officers as they sat in their offices. As

he entered the conference room, he found some of the officers hiding behind chairs as he continued to

fire his weapon. Hearing the shooting, several police officers standing outside entered the firehouse and

approached the room. As they tried to talk to the firefighter, one officer was shot.

The firefighter barricaded himself in the meeting room while police negotiators continued to talk to him.

For hours off and on, he fired his gun toward the police. Those who were wounded outside of the

conference room were removed to a safe area for treatment. Approximately 26 hours after the standoff

began, it appeared as if he would relent when he lifted his gun and fired at police before being shot in the

shoulder by return fire.