Email Testimony

Hey Dave, I have done a lot of emotional healing based on your method and I have had a lot of success but I came across your testimonial from 2016 about the firefighter battling PTSD. The helmet shown on the post is from the department I retired from 5 years ago so it caught my attention. Just a few days ago someone posted a pic from a horrible fire that my crew and I were first in on and I think it’s the first time I have seen a picture of that fire since that day, the ptsd from it took my love of the job so I retired years before I ever expected to.

My engine crew was first in on a large one story brick home with heavy smoke and fire showing on the roof in the back. We advanced the attack line deep into the home but we’re having trouble locating the seat of the fire. I had the thermal imager and was looking for the fire in the area below where I had seen the fire on the roof. An officer from another company yelled to me that we had fire behind us. I turned and looked and saw flame and let my guys know, 2-3 seconds later the roof of an added on living area in the back collapsed with us deep in the house, fire was blown over all of us.

I hit the floor and by the grace of God landed with the attack line between my legs, my head was at floor level and all I could see was fire. I crawled as fast as I could straddling the attack line to the front door and all the way I was screaming “God save us God save us” my face mask. It was the first time in my life that I knew 100% that I was about to die.

Well I made it out but I could account for only one of my guys and not the other. My Chief said someone was unaccounted for and I feared it was my good friend because I couldn’t locate him in the chaos. The Chief said I need guys to suit up and go back in. I was a Lieutenant and so I started getting my SCBA back on, there was a Captain was beside me getting ready as well, I was terrified still from what had just happened and now I knew I had to go back in the now we’ll involved house to find one of our guys, I had never felt complete horror until that moment because there was no way I could leave a friend in there, I knew for the second time in the span of about 2-3 minutes that I was going to die a very painful death.

Just as I got ready to go in the house, a member of the truck crew outside the house heard something hit a window from inside the house, it was the missing man. They broke the window and pulled him out, alive but with massive 3rd degree burns. It wasn’t my guy but a friend from another station, I had my hands on him just minutes before because I had the thermal imager and was directing him where to pull ceiling so we could get water on the fire. That short interaction between us left me with years of what I can only describe as survivors guilt even though nobody actually died. I saw some of the bravest people I know cry like babies that day.

I have done the emotional healing for that event a couple of times but when I read your testimonial the waterworks started right back so I did the EH again to cover some unaddressed emotions and I can feel the weight lifting. God bless our first responders because the things they see and experience can’t be imagined or understood by most folks. There’s a price to be paid for that line of work. God bless and thank you for your service brother.

https://prayingmedic.com/2016/01/18/healing-ptsd/