The City of Glendale has a new peer support program they hope will help end suicide growing rates among firefighters.
The program is one of the first of its kind in the state, addressing nationwide statistics that firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than on the job.
One hundred twenty times a day, that’s the amount firefighters here in Glendale are called to duty. This makes them one of the busiest fire departments in the US.
“We see everything from gunshot wounds stabbings, child codes drowning, heart attacks,” said Captain Ashley Losch with Glendale Fire.
And often, In these cases, they arrive first on the scene. In particular, one call has stuck with Captain Ashley Losch, the night she responded to a double murder-suicide.
“Truth be told, it’s been ten years since that call, and I didn’t know I was struggling with this all this time,” said Losch. “A father that had killed his two children, they were lying in their beds, and he shot himself, and he videotaped himself doing that, the whole act.”’