TOLEDO, Ohio — First responders are giving their account of what they see with the recent crime involving more and more youth.
They say it's something they hope no one ever has to ever experience.
Toledo Fire and Rescue deals with the trauma of each scenario, which is imprinted in their memories forever.
After some of Toledo's most heinous murders, firefighters and emergency medical services are among the first on the scene.
"Go in the house, everyone go in the house. Tell every firefighter to get in that apartment now." This sound is from body cam video from 2021, outside the Byrneport Apartments.
Inside, crews would find three children, two shot to death and a third critically wounded.
It's an image that has stayed with Battalion Chief Tom Phillips. He was the incident commander that day.
"When I saw a child with a couple of bullet holes. About the same size as my granddaughter. They were carrying a child out and I superimposed my granddaughter's face on that child and my knees actually buckled. Without a doubt the worst day of my 26 years," Phillips said.
The memory is burned in his mind forever.
Phillips said he hopes he never has to see anything worse, and he hopes the same for his fellow first responders
But it's hard to avoid with four children among the murder victims in Toledo this year.
"There's a toll. That mental, physical, and spiritual toll that, that first responders go through. We see a lot of runs. Last year we were over 62,000 incidents," Toledo Fire and Rescue Pvt. Sterling Rahe said.
He said the department is working to change the culture of bottling it all up.
"Some of them make peace with it and if you can't, you need to get help. And we're recognizing more and more that mental health, the mental stress of what we see and what we do is a big thing," Phillips said.
It's known as the employee assistance program.
"Is a pretty robust program. We have one of our veteran firefighters who has counseling background as well as pastoral background that is available to us 24/7 and he's very dedicated to that position and the well-being, the mental well-being of our members," Rahe said.
Because they know what it takes for these men and women to save lives.
" And we do the best we can and that's our only solace is that we did the absolute best we could within our scope of practice and our training and our equipment to give them the best possible outcome," Phillips said.
Toledo Fire and Rescue officials said residents can help first responders by calling 911 when you see a crime.
And they ask that you give them all the details you possibly can so they can have a plan when responding to the scene.
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