ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — In firehouses like the St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Master Station, there's rarely a dull moment.
So it shouldn't surprise you that firefighter Chris Gordon's response number has a few zeroes behind it after 24 years on the job.
"I'm going to ballpark maybe, 8 or 9,000 calls I've been on," he said.
Gordon told ABC Action News those thousands include some of the best calls that you can receive as a first responder.
"In my career, I've helped assist three deliveries of babies," he said.
But he added that they also include some of the worst calls.
"[Over the years] We had multiple fatality fires," said Gordon. "I definitely had a lot more positive outcomes, you know, than negative ones or fatal ones, but you definitely remember the bad ones. They're the ones that stick with you the most."
And they're decades of service that Gordon said also came with a cost.
"I was doing a lot of drinking. You know, at home, on my days off, I wanted to forget a lot of the things I saw," he said.
He told us he paid in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), isolation, suicidal thoughts, and a relationship with his family that was getting worse. It was a vicious cycle that continued for years until he hit rock bottom and asked for help.
"I knew I had a problem; I just didn't know what it was besides alcohol, alcoholism. I didn't know I was in depression. I didn't know I had other things going on," he said.
And Gordon is not alone—according to a 2022 study published in the National Library of Medicine, 57% of firefighters across the world experienced some form of PTSD during their careers.
Mental health expert Natasha Pierre told us the prevalence of PTSD in first responders is tied to repeated exposure to trauma.
"When you think about it, a person who has been at war what they see in a war zone, once they leave that war zone, the threat is over. They're home now. But when you think about first responders, there really isn't any post to the trauma," she said.
And she added that these are the signs to look out for.
"People tend to retreat into themselves as they're either replaying, having intrusive thoughts, reoccurring thoughts, retreat into themselves. Their behavior may change, so there might be outbursts of anger or rage. They may overly respond or under-respond," she said.
In the end, Pierre told us the only way to heal is to work through it.
"First thing is there is no pill for trauma. Trauma has to be processed," she said.
Local 747 IAFF president, Richard Pauley, told us providing healing to firefighters is a personal mission of his.
"We work here with our firefighters to protect them from the two things that kill more firefighters than anything else: cancer and PTSD," he said.
On the mental health front, the union helps pay for crew members to see a local therapist. They've also established peer-to-peer support networks so firefighters can check in with each other and speak openly.
Pauley said these supports also work to dismantle the stigma surrounding mental health.
"Knowledge is key. If you know about something and you're aware, and somebody that you work with, and respect shows that it's okay to get treatment, then I think that it goes a long way," he said.
Pauley told ABC Action News that there are also options for those who need some extra support.
"And if you find that it's not enough, we prefer to send our people to the Center of Excellence up in Maryland and that's an immersion. You know it's 30-45 days of constant therapy, therapy groups," he said.
For Chris Gordon, that extra support in March of 2019 was exactly what he needed to get his family and life back on track.
"We became a stronger, tighter, more open and happier family," he said.
These days, he said he's focused on continuing his healing journey and falling in love with his job again.
"The job is fun again. I kinda got to meet my crew again," he laughed. "The guys that I've been working with. You know, I was there, but I was a shell,"
And most importantly, he's preparing to welcome another Gordon into the station.
"My oldest, she just signed up for our cadet program with our department," he said.
