Retired Methuen, MA, Firefighter with PTSD Sues City

METHUEN — A retired firefighter struggling with PTSD because of experiences he had on the job said he was denied the benefits owed to him for a workplace injury that left him disabled, according to a recent filing in Essex Superior Court.

In a lawsuit filed in July, an attorney for Methuen firefighter Jeffrey Sirois, 53, said the city had wrongly denied him paid leave, among other complaints, after Sirois became unable to do his job due to PTSD. His attorney, Leigh Panettiere, said the case is indicative of a system that does not accommodate physiological injuries and a culture that still stigmatizes talking openly about mental health.

Sirois is seeking around $125,000 in estimated damages, though the final number would be determined by city records, according to court documents.

He had also been denied accidental disability retirement from the Methuen Retirement Board, though that decision was recently overturned by the Division of Administrative Law Appeals. That ruling is being appealed by the Retirement Board to the state Contributory Retirement Appeal Board, or CRAB, according to the lawsuit.

Sirois worked as a Methuen firefighter from 1997 to 2022 and most recently held the rank of lieutenant.

“Over the course of his career as a firefighter, Sirois responded to many traumatic, disturbing incidents, after which he experienced the symptoms of post-traumatic stress,” wrote Panettiere. “But he did not report these symptoms at the time of the incidents, because he did not know they were the symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and he was never comfortable revealing what he considered to be weakness.”

In an interview, Panettiere said first responders are discouraged from talking about these types of issues because they fear it could result in them losing licenses for firearms, their jobs or the confidence of coworkers.

“You have to be tough and strong and brave all of the time,” she said.

The complaint includes descriptions of calls during his career which caused him trauma as well as 100 other pages of relevant records. One incident was specifically cited in kicking off his PTSD symptoms.

“On December 29, 2020, a large house fire at 15 Smith Avenue,” wrote Panettiere. “The house was filling with smoke when he and his company entered. After searching the first floor, he and Captain Blanchette descended into the cellar. His face mask was losing air. He got turned around and got lost. He thought he was going to die. A separate engine company had to come and put the fire out. He was assisted out of the building by Captain Blanchette just as his tank completely ran out of air.”

As a result of incidents like this he began experiencing symptoms of PTSD which affected his performance on the job.

According to case documents, for employees to be granted disability by the retirement board they need to file the application within two years of the incident that caused their disability.

Panettiere said this stipulation doesn’t make any sense when it comes to mental health.

“You can get PTSD from something that happened 20 years ago,” she added.

First responders also don’t tend to file injury reports for physiological damage, making documentation harder to produce.

While Sirois was able to point to an incident within the two-year timeframe, the board rejected the claim that this incident led to Sirois’s PTSD, she said. A medical panel determined he was injured on the job.

Alongside problems with the system, Panettiere said the mentality of retirement boards all across the state needs to change. She said there is often a sense among members that they were able to work a full career and may have had similar experiences on the job, so others should also be able to handle the stress of these incidents.

She added the notion that you shouldn’t admit weakness is also perpetuated from the older first responders and unfortunately being absorbed by younger people.

Attorneys for the board and the city of Methuen did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

A response in court by the city is due by Nov. 25.