For the first responders who raced to the scene of not only of Saturday’s horrific limo crash in Cutchogue, which took the lives of four young women, but also come to the aid of victims at countless other fires and accidents, lingering emotional impacts can be devastating.
At the scene, first responders perform seamlessly, a well-trained team working hand in hand with fellow volunteers to save lives — but when they return to their homes and families, emotional aftermath can take a toll.
Some report tears, depression, and sleepless nights spent remembering what they’ve seen.
That’s why help is available to provide emotional support, through Suffolk County’s Emergency Services Critical Incident Stress Team, or CISM, which sends out members to help counsel those left deeply affected by grief and who can display symptoms including loss of appetite, sleeplessness, and sadness.
Ellen B. Komosinski, a coordinator with the Suffolk County’s Department of Health’s CISM team, which was organized in 1984, said in order to join the crisis intervention team, which is made up of volunteer fellow first responders, a firefighter or EMT must have five years of experience.
The team is overseen by a clinical director, she said. Komosinksi, who has 39 years of experience as an EMT, said EMTs are trained in critical incidents as part of their curriculum.
After a devastating tragedy or crisis, an officer or their designee from a fire department or ambulance corps whose members are left reeling, can call the crisis intervention team’s hot line number, which will go to the county’s department of fire, rescue and emergency services in Yaphank.
From there, a dispatcher will call back within five or six minutes. The team is on call 24/7, even on holidays, which can be a “difficult period, as things build up,” Komosinski said.
A new texting system has been implemented; when a chief or their designee calls, information is gathered and a team is sent out. All calls and counseling sessions are anonymous, Komosinksi said.
All volunteers participate in ancillary trainings with a director who has been educated at the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation in Maryland. Team members receive group crisis and individual intervention training.
If an incident is still ongoing, a crisis management debriefing team is sent out; if it’s deemed necessary, teams can come back within 24 hours to do a defusing, where those who’ve witnessed trauma can share their experiences in a non-structured environment. The team can also return within 72 hours for another debriefing — and help is available even in the weeks and months ahead, if needed. One on one sessions are also available.
“My team is a very dedicated group of individuals,” Komosinksi said. “We’re dealing with our peers, and they’re very important to all of us. We all do the same thing; we’re in this together — and we’re always here to help anyone that needs it, after an event.”
She added that helping “feels really good. You can walk into a group, and they’re in a circle and their heads are low. By the end of the session, they’ll be lifting their heads up and talking. It’s a really great feeling, to know that we’ve helped them.” Komoskinski said her volunteerism was born while watching her dad and later, she married a firefighter. “It’s an honor to do this. It’s my life,” she said.
“You close your eyes and you see that accident”
According to Jennifer Grilli, captain of Greenport Fire Department’s rescue squad and firefighter, the team was called out to at least one North Fork fire department this week, to provide grief counseling and to help members cope.
While she was not on Saturday’s call, Grilli said she was affected after being at the scene of a motorcycle accident a few years ago. “It gets to you. You see things you don’t expect to see,” she said. “You close your eyes and you see that accident. You’ll have those visions of that accident for the rest of your life.”
Grief counseling, she said, can help, although some first responders do not immediately ask for counseling. “A lot of people like to try to be a hero.” Days later, she said, some might find they needed to speak to someone to help deal with their feelings.
Of Saturday’s accident, Grilli said the four young women were just out to enjoy what the North Fork has to offer. “You don’t think anything like that is going to happen here. Their lives were taken in a split second. One of our chiefs who was there said it was the worst accident he’s seen in 25 years.”
Living in a small town, when called to the scene of an accident, “You don’t know who you are going to come up against. Am I going to find someone I know? The biggest challenge is working past the horror of it, past that one visual that got to you. You are here to help your community, your family and friends,” Grilli said.
Some squad members find, after being called to a fatality, that they have to step back and ultimately cannot bring themselves to go back for recertification.
That’s why, Grilli said, it’s critical for first responders to take the time off, if needed, to heal and find support, so volunteers can continue in the future.
“If there weren’t people like us, they wouldn’t get the help needed at the scene.”
How to keep going at the scene of a tragedy
Peggy Killian, chief of the Southold Fire Department, said the county’s program is invaluable in helping volunteers to talk about what they’ve experienced.
When on the scene, Killian said the way to cope is to focus on what she is doing. “I’m thinking about how I’ve got to try to help this person,” she said. “You have to block out everything else and concentrate on what you’re doing. You’re busy trying to save a life, to help a person. When the call is over, it’s a different story.”
Some first responders, she said, are grieving and in tears days after an accident.
One thing that makes the unthinkable bearable, Killian said, is focusing on the lives that were saved due to the efforts of volunteers.
“You’ve got to try to think positively,” she said. In the case of a fatality, she said, “You have to realize that you weren’t going to change that outcome, but you could change the outcome of those that are surviving. That’s where you have to put all your efforts.”
Otherwise, she said, it would be hard to keep going. Focusing on the positive outcomes, she said, helps first responders to keep going. “Not all our calls are that horrific,” she said. Otherwise, “There’d be nobody doing this at all.”
First responders, she said, are human, and deal with the emotional aftermath of tragedy. “I don’t think anybody can be objective,” she said. “You can’t just turn it off and be cold.”
That’s why, she said, the county offers crisis intervention, to help counsel those mourning after a horrific scene.
After a tragedy, Killian said firefighters return to the firehouse and just spend time together, sharing, talking, in a place where those that were there, together, racing against time to save the injured, can find comrades with shared experiences.
Killian said the entire North Fork, the entire 8th division, even though they are separate units, acts as a united team in the face of major tragedy. “Everyone works together,” she said.
