By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer An estimated 200 firefighters die by suicide each year. Maybe that’s accurate. Maybe it isn’t. Show me the data. The uncomfortable truth is that we don’t know. Organizations like the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FBHA) maintain the best available data, but much of it comes from news reports and voluntary notifications. We often know ...

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer The recent passing of Randolph Mantooth, the actor who brought firefighter-paramedic Johnny Gage to life on the groundbreaking television series Emergency!, has caused many of us in the fire and EMS community to reflect on the pioneers who helped shape modern prehospital care. While millions remember Mantooth as Johnny Gage, there is another name ...

By. Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer In my “2nd fire service career I’ve found a place with the Fire Service Psychology Association (FSPA) where I’m currently the Operations Chief tasked with the day-to-day activities of FSPA. Our Challenge Firefighters operate in a high-risk profession characterized by repeated exposure to trauma, critical incidents, occupational stress, and complex organizational challenges. Yet relatively ...

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer (Ret.) Leave it to my fire service colleague, Kory Pearn, to answer that question in a big way! In addition to being a Captain with the St. Thomas, Ontario Fire Department–23 years and still going–Kory is the founder and publisher of CRACKYL Magazine. In his latest article, The 30 Years Inside the 80, Kory ...

Firefighters and EMS professionals operate in environments defined by chaos, trauma, and split-second decision-making. Yet, despite these realities, many departments still rely on psychological assessment tools that were never designed for the fire service—or worse, skip them altogether.

Women in the fire service are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for equal treatment—for respect, dignity, safety, and a real voice in the profession they have committed their lives to serving. That is not an unreasonable demand. It is a basic expectation.

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Voss for an in‑depth conversation about leadership, organizational change, and what it really takes to lead people through uncertainty in a Fire and EMS environment. In this interview, we explored themes from my book, Successful Transformational Change in a Fire and EMS Department: How ...

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer Pick up almost any fire service trade journal or visit most industry websites and you’ll hear a familiar refrain: leaders in the U.S. fire service are telling us that a “new normal” emerged from the Great Recession of 2008. What I find far less often, however, is a serious discussion about what that new ...

Why Fire Service Leaders Need a Dedicated Field of Fire Psychology By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer and FSPA Operations Chief Visit FSPA at www.firepsychology.org Most fire service leaders in the U.S. and Canada understand better than anyone that organizational readiness, operational effectiveness, and firefighter well being are inseparable. Yet the national infrastructure supporting psychological services for firefighters in both ...

Sponsored Content: First Responder Behavioral Health Institute By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer The First Responder Behavioral Health Institute (FRBHI) is breaking new ground with its transformative course, Medicine Song: Spiritual Healing and the Psychedelic Renaissance. Designed to bridge ancient wisdom and modern science, this program explores the profound role of music and spirituality in healing, while diving into the ...