Sisters & Brothers,

Happy Father's Day to all our Fire Family! Today is the day we celebrate our dads, fathers, stepfathers, and mentors both those that are with us and those that have passed on.

This year we were reminded that some of our Fire Family will need some help from us, the extended family. Please keep Brother Carlon's girls, Joslyn, Brynn, and Bree in your hearts and all our kids who have lost a father. Take a moment to send a text, call or reach out and let them know they are loved. 

FIRE FAMILY...

Fire Family is something we are going to say more and something we are going to do more. Yesterday we converged on Santa Clarita to take time and be that Fire Family.

Over 300 LA County Fire members took time to get together and not only begin to heal but to talk and hang out like family. Local 1014 and the Department through our wonderful Peer Support Team sponsored a day of healing and fun for all. We had music, games, balloon animals, coloring and crafts, good barbecue, Kana Shave Ice, and even an old-school water balloon fight! 
 
Special thanks to Long Beach Fire Fighters Local 372 for grilling up so much good BBQ. We had our LACOFD leaders like Vince Pena, Jon O Brien, and Dennis Breshears, and members from Dispatch, Forestry, Health HazMat, FSA, Camps, Air Operations, and office and support staff. Benefit and Welfare was also there and is always so supportive of our Labor Management Peer Support Program, as well as our LACOFD Fire Wives. We also want to thank the amazing staff at California Professional Firefighters for supporting this event in every way.
 
Each and every one of us in the words of President Dave Gillotte and Chief Deputy of Operations Vince Pena are “just humans in need of human contact, friends and family love” and that's exactly what happened yesterday. 
 
While the water balloon fights, baseball and good music allowed our families to sit and reconnect, it was the conversations that were the highlight. We heard so many of our families say ''We need to do this more'' and they are right. 
 
Let's encourage and sponsor smaller station or battalion events going forward. Get those river trips or pool parties together. Go to the beach and mountains together. Give each other the support we so desperately need. 
 
Our army of trained Peers Support Team members together with Dr. Steve, Dr. Karl, and the Windells had conversations that began the healing for many members. In fact, some of the best peer support for our families came from our Peer Support Comfort Dogs, Milo and Echo. 
 
We are far from done. We have been reminded of the importance of each other and the Fire Family support that needs to be a constant focus of our collective time both in and outside of the stations. 
 
Thank you to all who worked so hard to make this day of healing and love for our Fire Families a reality and thank you to all the Fire Unions and Departments that we worked to get into our stations to cover so we could bring a week to reset to those impacted the most by the incident. Both stations in Battalion 22 and individuals from other key stations were ''automatically'' off. We heard from so many that if it wasn't automatic they likely would not have taken the days off and they really needed this reset. We are always learning how to heal from trauma and the family day and reset will likely become a California peer support standard for all. 
 
Take care today and again, Happy Father’s Day to all. Today please take time to reach out to someone who might need that "Fire Family” support.