Boston sends 2 firefighters with peer-support training to Orlando
Two Boston firefighters trained in peer counseling are headed to Florida to support firefighters who responded to Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando.
The Boston Fire Department received a request from the International Association of Fire Fighters through the local union for two of their “certified, highly trained Peer Support Firefighter Councilors,” the department announced Monday.
The request for the two firefighters, who will join a team of similarly trained firefighters from across the country, was “immediately” approved by Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn, according to department spokesman Steve MacDonald.
The firefighters are expected to begin working in Orlando on Monday evening.
Their mission is to listen to and talk with the firefighters who responded and provide help and guidance if asked.
— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) June 13, 2016
The early morning attack, which was the deadliest mass shooting in United States history, left at least 50 people dead and 53 more hospitalized. Mayor Marty Walsh and Boston police have also reached out to Orlando to provide support.
MacDonald said members of the support team are continually trained in peer counseling and were heavily involved during the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, as well as other local calamities that may have left first responders affected.
“It’s easier to talk to a fellow firefighter than a civilian, someone who knows the job,” MacDonald said.
MacDonald said the firefighters will get a sense of how long they’ll be needed to stay on location once they get down to Orlando and begin talking with the first responders there. He noted that Boston had similarly dispatched such support teams following the September 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, and other natural disasters.
“This is just one of the things that firefighters do,” MacDonald said.
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