Leslie Dangerfield said the things that her husband witnessed during his firefighting career took a heavy toll on him. David Dangerfield, a battalion chief with Indian River County, FL, Fire Department took his own life on Oct. 15 after he posted about firefighter PTSD on Facebook.
Leslie and David, who she called "Mr. Strong Fire Fighter" married in 2002 and had a son named Bryce.
“He could keep somebody who was in absolute shock or pain laughing," Leslie told WGNTV.com. "Like he could take their mind away from it so he could treat them and take care of them and get them what they needed. He just had a gift of taking care of others. He put this Superman cape on outside in the world, but when he came home he was a different person.”
She said firefighters welcomed her and Bryce to the fire station for dinners and visits while David was working, but as his career went on, he changed.
“He was not violent or aggressive towards me, just completely irrational," Leslie said. "Inability to sleep. Inability to take care of his own health needs because he felt he was invincible. One night he was just crying and sobbing, and he said, ‘What do you know about depression? What do you know about anxiety?’ He said, ‘There’s something wrong with me. I don’t know what it is.’ And we started looking up the symptoms. And I said you have PTSD. He’s like, ‘No that’s for veterans, the military.’ I said, David this is you!”
She took the reporter on a ride around the county, past the stations where David worked and by the scenes of many tragedies that David responded to.
“He loved it. If there was a bad call, Dave wanted to be on it. He was never the guy just trying to get through a career. He wanted to be on the calls," said Kevin Slade, who worked with Dangerfield on the dive team. "The flipside of that is shocking when you realize how much it was weighing on him.”
David left the house in his Class A uniform on Oct. 15 and told his son, "See you in a little bit, buddy."
Shortly before he took his life, he went on Facebook and posted: “PTSD for Firefighters is real. If your loved one is experiencing signs, get them help quickly…27 years of deaths and babies dying in your hands is a memory that you will never get rid of. It haunted me daily until now. My love to my crews. Be safe, take care. I love you all.”
Leslie said: “I always told David, ‘You are a leader, so if you are brave enough and start getting the word out and digging around, you could lead these guys to the help they need. He didn’t achieve it in his life, but he’s achieving it in his death.”
Behavioral Health
- LeDuc, et.al: How Firefighters Can Manage Stress
- Morrison: How Fire Departments are Addressing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Sendelbach: Assessing Risk Never Stops
- Lamplugh: Responding to Your Own Mental Health
- Lorber: Stress Awareness: Signs & Symptoms
- Ludwig: Suicides Among Fire & EMS Professionals
- Warren: When Firefighters Become Patients
- Ludwig: Suicides Among Firefighters and Paramedics
- Sendelbach: Continuing the Conversation
- Siarnicki: Who Responds to a Firefighter’s Worst Day?
- Kenny: Suicide Prevention: Do Something About It
- Wilmoth: Can We Talk?
- Video: Suicide in the Fire Service: Saving Firefighters
- Video: Soaring Firefighter Suicides Focus of Documentary
