Local firefighters tend to flames and mental health

Firefighters are often expected to work through anything without concern for their own well-being, according to wildland firefighter Courtney Kaltenbach, who is employed by a local contractor.

“Firefighting is an extremely patriarchal, masculine field, so it’s dominated by a culture of toxic masculinity, which is ‘don’t show any weakness,’ so already there’s a huge difficulty trying to change the culture around talking about mental health,” Kaltenbach said. “It’s especially difficult I think for people who aren’t men, mental health-wise, to exist in that world.”

Kaltenbach mentioned that in their experience, they have only just begun discussing mental health in their training process, but it is far from adequate.