US Forest Service Fire Director interviewed about suicide among firefighters

Marc Mullenix
Marc Mullenix

In January 2008 a few days after Wildfire Today was created I first wrote about firefighter suicide when someone I had served with on an Incident Management Team, Marc Mullenix, took his life. Some of his past jobs included Fairmont Fire Protection District, Wildland Fire Division Chief for the Boulder Fire Department, and Fire Management Officer for Mesa Verde National Park, all in Colorado. In 2007 Marc was a Type 1 Incident Commander trainee on Kim Martin’s Incident Management Team in the Rocky Mountain Geographic Area. He was married to Shawna Legarza, a former Hotshot who is now the Director of Fire and Aviation for the U.S. Forest Service.

In the last few years we have learned that the suicide rates of wildland firefighters is “astronomical”, according to information developed by Nelda St. Clair of the Bureau of Land Management in 2017. It is high even when compared with structural firefighters, which is also higher than the general population.

In an article published at REI.com this week, Jenni Gritters interviewed Director Legarza about firefighter suicide. The piece is titled, “Reports show wildland firefighters may struggle in secret once the season ends.”

The article shines a light on the issue and is very much worth reading, but below are excerpts:

Back in 2008, Lagarza says no one knew how to react to firefighter suicides. She wondered what to say to people, and what people would say to her. She wondered how she had missed the signs. She wondered if she should go back to work at all. Eventually, she returned to school to get her Ph.D. in psychology, to try to understand suicide better. Now she runs fire programs for the U.S. Forest Service, with a special emphasis on firefighter education.

[…]

There’s no denying that there is a problem when it comes to suicide: Wildland firefighters are dying by suicide at startling rates each year, far more often than people in the general population. This is a fact that has been known within the fire community for years, often whispered and mourned, but not spoken about directly until recently, Legarza says.

Part of the reason for the silence—and lack of information—around death by suicide comes from an issue with reporting. Jeff Dill, the founder of the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FFBHA), says that many firefighters experience mental health struggles after they’ve gone fully off-duty for the season, which means their deaths often go unreported within agencies like the National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and U.S. Forest Service (USFS).

[…]

In 2018, a Florida State University professor and clinical psychologist who studies military suicides released a study that ruffled some feathers when it showed that wildland firefighters, in particular, were more likely to report clinically significant suicide symptoms than non-wildland firefighters. In the study, 55% of wildland firefighters reported experiencing thoughts about death by suicide, compared to 32% of non-wildland firefighters. Both of these percentages are staggering compared to NIH suicide data on the general population, which shows that 20% of people, on average, experience some suicidal thoughts.

Help is available for those feeling really depressed or suicidal.

Suicide Warning Signs
Suicide Warning Signs

Other articles on Wildfire Today about wildland firefighter suicide:

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Bill. Typos or errors, report them HERE.

We lost another firefighter

Pine Valley Creek Bridge
Bridge on Interstate 8 over Pine Creek near Pine Valley, California as seen from an airliner July 11, 2005. Uploaded to Wikipedia by NicksGarage.

On Sunday November 5 we lost another wildland firefighter to the suicide epidemic. After completing his shift that morning at CAL FIRE’s Station 20 in El Cajon, California Captain Ryan Mitchell took his own life at the Interstate 8 Pine Valley bridge in San Diego County near Pine Valley.

“This tragic and unexplainable incident has affected many personnel in the Unit, both those that knew Ryan and those that responded to the incident”, Unit and County Fire Chief Tony Mecham wrote Sunday in a message to the county firefighters. “I am proud of our personnel and the efforts undertaken today under very difficult conditions. I especially want to thank those personnel who spent the day at the scene and accompanied Ryan to the Medical Examiners Office this evening.”

“While we may never know exactly what lead to this tragic event”, Chief Mecham continued,  “what we do know is that mental health issues are real and no one should feel embarrassed or ashamed to ask for help. Circumstances at work and in our personal lives affect our mental health and quality of life. There are many resources available to all of us through Employee Support Services, Employee Assistance Programs and our own personal network.”

On November 4 we wrote about the shocking  number of wildland firefighters who have taken their own lives. According to Nelda St. Clair of the Bureau of Land Management we lost 52 in a two-year period, 2015 to 2016.

Chief Mecham is right. Help is available.

The image below that we posted on Facebook is an abbreviated version of help sources that could be posted on bulletin boards or stuffed into employee mailboxes.

suicide sources for help

Colorado’s "Marc Mullenix" bill proposes civil immunity protection for some firefighters

The Colorado legislature has passed a bill, Senate # 09-013, that would provide some civil immunity for volunteer firefighters, and for fire departments that donate surplus fire equipment to other fire departments. The bill also includes protection for incident managment teams, both standing teams and “ad hoc” teams. An official copy of the bill is HERE. On May 19 the bill was sent to the governor who is expected to sign it at the Colorado Wildfire and Incident Management Academy in June.

The bill is named the “Marc Mullenix Volunteer Firefighter Protection Act”. Chief Mullenix was a wildland firefighter who in 2007 was a Type 1 Incident Commander trainee on Kim Martin’s Incident Management Team in the Rocky Mountain Geographic Area. Some of his past jobs included Wildland Fire Division Chief for the Boulder Fire Department, Fire Management Officer for Mesa Verde National Park, and Division Chief with the Fairmont Fire Protection District, all in Colorado. He passed away, a victim of suicide, on January 28, 2008, in Mancos, Colorado at the age of 50.

Life Challenge Program, in memory of Marc Mullenix

The Life Challenge Program, created in memory of Marc Mullenix, is now being hosted by the Wildland Firefighter Foundation. Marc passed away on January 28, 2008.

In 2007 Marc was a Type 1 Incident Commander trainee on Kim Martin’s Incident Management Team in the Rocky Mountain Geographic Area. Some of his past jobs included Wildland Fire Division Chief for the Boulder Fire Department, Fire Management Officer for Mesa Verde National Park, and Division Chief for the Fairmont Fire Protection District, all in Colorado.

According to the Life Challenge Program web site:

“The Life Challenge Program is a reflective and support based program which will help set a vision for firefighters and families to better understand the emotions faced during the challenges in life. This program is dedicated to those who are the survivors.”

We received some questions about the cause of death of Marc Mullenix shortly after it occurred, but did not discuss it since it was not reported widely. But on the web site, the biography of his surviving spouse, Shawna Legarza, begins like this:

Shawna Legarza is the surviving spouse of her husband, Marc Mullenix who committed suicide in 2008. She is also the founder of Wildland Firefighter Life Challenge Program, is currently working her 21st year in Fire and Aviation Management. During her fire career she also completed the USFS Joint Wildland Firefighter Apprenticeship Academy, obtained an Associate Arts Degree in Science for Wildland Fire Management, Bachelors Art Degree in Wildland Fire Management, a Bachelors of Science in Exercise Physiology and teaching, a Masters of Science in Kinesiology and is currently working on a PhD in Psychology specializing in Organizational Leadership.

Donations for the program can be made through the Wildland Firefighter Foundation; just specify that it is for the Life Challenge Program.