Fire Department Chaplains????

[alpha192]

Does your fire department have a chaplain?

What are the responsibilities of the chaplain?

When and why does he go to fire calls, if at all?

Keep Safe,

James

[lutan1]

Our service has two chaplains on call 24/7.

They never respond to an incident, only to the station, and only if called. There is no protocol for when they attend- it's entirely up to the individual.

They are great to talk to, but they know there limitations. ie:they know when to pass a person onto the peer team or the psychologist. (We have volunteers trained up on the peer team as counsellors and we also have a psychologist, all on call 24/7.)

The chaplains, I beleive, have broken down the walls to members seeking counselling. I think in the past, it was perhaps seen by some people as a sign of weakness. These guys come down and just talk- they're a lovely couple that I reckon could sell ice to the eskimo's! They can get anyone to open up and talk, without you really realizing it....

[DFDRev]

The Detroit Fire Dept. has a corps of five chaplains. The chief and four captains. The chief chaplain has an office at fire hq and handles most of the counseling as well as serves as the EEOC chairperson for the department.

We are available 24/7 and can be contacted through Central Office (dispatch). The chaplains do respond on incidents, however, we are not firefighters. We do wear full turnout gear to meet safety standards while on the fireground - we are the ones with white helmets and clean gear! We have a normal duty rotation for emergency calls. The chaplain on call (duty officer) responds to any fire that goes to a 2nd alarm, mass cassualty, special rescues (ie, trench rescue, scaffolding collapse, etc), and will respond to the hospital for injured FFs. If a fire goes to 3rd or greater, all chaplains respond.

While at the fireground, we provide emotional support/encouragement and work as the laison between the IC and families, Red Cross, and Salvation Army. We make sure that the Salv. Army Canteen shows up when needed and help get refreshments to the crews.

The duty officer is also notified of civilians injured in a fire. This is so that we can follow up with the crews that may have had an emotionally difficult incident (ie, child victim, fatalities, mass cassualty).

Whenever the city's Emergency Operations Center is activated, a chaplain will be there staffing a family hotline. This has been established for the families of FFs to be able to call to check on the well-being of their family member or to get messages to them.

We also do the "traditional" or "cerimonial" stuff... weddings, funerals, invocations/benedictions at department functions, blessing of the fleet, to name a few.

If you have any questions or would like more info, feel free to shoot me an email.


the Rev

[PuffyNPFD]

We have two. Fr. Bert who has been chaplain for the last 30 yrs. and at one point was a call man (when they still had them). He responds to any fire he can and he is always there when you need him. We also have a firefighter on my job who is a minister and he takes care of the the very small # (11 out of 103) who aren't Catholic. But being a former priest himself he can relate to us as well. There isn't a better pair of men than these 2 and I am proud to be close to both f them.

[emalaura]

Our volunteer department has different area pastors that we use as our chaplains. The main role they play is sitting through Critical Incident Stress Debriefings and providing support and an outside party to talk to. Members of our department are also made aware of them in case they want a chance to talk one-on-one with them.

[bfpd36]

We have a fire chaplain too. He's a Catholic Lay Deacon. He's also a trained firefighter. He responds to most calls even though he is only required to respond if called. But he makes sure he is on any call that involves a fatality. He's a great guy and we all have his pager and home phone number and is willing to meet with anyone 24/7.

[Weruj1]

we also have a lay catholic decon who is also one of our EMS Lt's.............he responds to runs as an actual member.........his son also just got on !!!

[CIFD88]

Hey DFDRev,
If you see this, would you mind writing me an email an CIFDanger88@hotmail.com?

[DFDRev]

CIFD88 - An email is on the way...

Rev.

[MOTOWN88]

TO THE CHAPLAINS OF THE DFD......TIP O' THE LID TO YOU, YOU ARE SOME OF THE FINEST TO EVER WEAR THE TITLE.

[DFDRev]

Why, thank you, Mo!

[CDean1262]

The Chicago Fire Department currently has 3 chaplains..(1)a Roman Catholic priest, Father Tom Mulchrone, (who is just the latest in a line of stand up guys,) Rabbi Moshe Wolf(another sweetheart) and a Protestant chaplain, Rev. Landis McAlpin, who was also on the job. (another fine fella....)

[Engine5FF]

Might I recomend this web site...http://chaplain.firefighting.org/

My career dept. has an informal chaplin in that Fr. Pete is available if we need him and he comes to HQ for coffee at times. My old volly dept. has a priest with membership who comes to the banquets and gives prayers and blessings as needed.

[joejoe33]

Our organizations' chaplain doubles as the chaplain for our police department. He serves in many functions as chaplain along with being a full-time pastor at a baptist church accross the street from one of our stations. He does not recieve a salary but is worth his weight in gold. He was issued a pager and is on call 24/7. All the members chipped in and bought him a Sam Houston leather helmet with the chaplain insignia. The Brotherhood of Christian Fire Fighters is non-demominational. His dad was a firefighter and he has a love for firefighters.

[firecat1524]

We don't have one at my current station, but at the station I was formerly assigned to..we had a local Lutheran pastor who was also a voliie. He served as Dept. Chaplin as well, and was available 24/7 to any F/F who needed him.