Jake Spitzack
Staff Writer
A purebred golden retriever puppy named Hal has joined South Metro Fire as the department’s first-ever therapy dog. Still growing into his paws, Hal will undergo a year of weekly training sessions to learn how to identify people in need of comfort or assistance. In the meantime, his handler, deputy fire chief Terry Johnson, will keep him at the fire station to serve as a bright presence for the firefighters.
“One of my areas of responsibility and truly my passion is firefighter mental, physical and emotional wellbeing, and to me this is one more tool in the toolbox to help with that,” said Johnson. “The initial training is just obedience training but as it progresses, they teach the dogs to be able to key in on responders that may be struggling.”
Hal was donated to the department by Soldier’s 6, a Minnesota-based nonprofit that provides trained therapy dogs to fire and police departments and other first responders as well as honorably discharged veterans. He was bred in northern Minnesota by a member of the American Kennel Club and his brother, Riley, was donated to the South St. Paul Police Department at the same time. Soldier’s 6 will provide free training for the lifetime of both dogs.
Hal has already helped some of the department’s 40 firefighters decompress following a few recent incidents, Johnson said,
including a stabbing and a house fire. Once trained, Hal will accompany firefighters at community and public education events and respond to specific calls where large numbers of people are displaced, such as an apartment fire. Likewise, Riley will be a calming presence for victims giving statements at the South St. Paul Police Department.
“It’s the accumulation – this chronic exposure to people in their worst situations [that is challenging],” said Johnson regarding the stress that first responders face. “Sometimes it’s traumatic, like gunshots and stabbings and bad car accidents, and you’re seeing carnage, and other times you’re going to people who don’t take care of themselves or are dealing with mental health issues and chemical dependency issues…. For me and many other responders, your view of society becomes warped because you’re dealing with this so much… You feel like everyone is like this and that’s not the case.”
In addition to Hal, the department supports the staff’s mental wellbeing with the Par360 program, which provides each person with an annual one-on-one meeting with a psychologist. The psychologist also provides training on mental resilience. The department and MnFIRE, a nonprofit statewide advocacy organization, also offer peer support groups.
“I received a text yesterday from a firefighter who retired on mental health disability with PTSD,” said Johnson. “He said, ‘I heard the news [about Hal] and it’s awesome. I wish we would have had this when I was there. This is a great thing for the department and its responders.’”
New study explores adding third station
South Metro is a joint venture between the cities of South St. Paul and West St. Paul and has a station in both cities. The department responded to some 7,600 incidents in 2022, a 4.3% increase over the previous year and a whopping 38.9% increase compared to 10 years ago. Of those calls, 5,819 were for emergency medical services and 92 were for fire incidents. The increase prompted the cities to hire Citygate Associates, a fire protection and emergency services consultant, to conduct a study of the department and its response times. It was completed in mid-November and found that the department can be expected to reach 85.7% of its service area within 5 minutes. While that’s a good response time, the recommendation for urban and suburban departments is a number closer to 4 minutes. Citygate recommended that the department consider creating a third station if it can’t consistently maintain a 5-minute response time on average.
In other news, South Metro is encouraging homeowners and business owners to register on its Community Connect website and provide special details about their property, such as that the resident is in a wheelchair, there are pets, or there’s oxygen in use. The website was created last year to help ensure firefighters are as prepared as possible when responding to an incident. To register, visit communityconnect.io/info/mn-southmetro. For more information, call the West St. Paul station at 651-552-4176 or the South St. Paul station at 651-554-3250, or visit smfdmn.org.