Firefighters today have more support available, says Slave Lake fire chief

Decades ago, when firefighters returned from the front lines, they would typically stay silent about what they'd seen and experienced.

Things are different today.

"Now, we talk with our family and friends, we talk with our co-workers, we talk with other first responders," said Jamie Coutts, the fire chief of Slave Lake.

"If someone's having a challenge, we can give them support now."

Slew of homes burned to ground

8 years ago

Duration 1:10

Scenes of destruction in fire-ravaged Fort McMurray

The focus on mental health, and post-traumatic stress in particular, is one big change Coutts has seen in his decades as a firefighter.

That makes it easier to be a firefighter today, he said in an interview with CBC radio Wednesday.

"We'd see the bad things, we'd do the crazy stuff that we do, and no one really talked about it," said Coutts, who fought both the Fort McMurray and Slave Lake wildfires. "You'd just kind of push it away to some place in your mind, and try to deal with it yourself.

"When you're going into things that people are running away from, it's a tough situation for firefighters to be in."

It's sometimes easy for frontline firefighters to focus on what was lost, rather than what was saved, he said.

"Slave Lake was a good example," Coutts said, "Thirty or forty per cent of the town burns down and you could really focus on that, and really start to feel bad about that. But when you talk about saving 60, 65 per cent of your home town, all of a sudden it turns into something different."

The Alberta government passed a private member's bill on Monday that established an annual awareness day for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The first PTSD Awareness Day will be held June 27