First Responders to Club Q shooting receive mental health resources and trauma support

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Following the shooting at Club Q, many first responders are receiving support for their mental health.

Many Colorado Springs firefighters were at Club Q and a big part of the response that night.

A lieutenant for the Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD), Bryan Ebmeyer says that there can be a tendency for first responders to remain stoic and not show their emotions. But the department is pushing those first responders to share their stories and work through them. 

Ebmeyer says the first responders from the fire department inside the club that night were making decisions on who to transport to the hospital first and addressing some serious,  life-threatening injuries at the scene.

Ebmeyer says the victims they saw that night will stick with them.

"We just do what our job requires us to do. We get busy, we get a job, and then it's after that that all those emotional feelings come in. And what we really just went through, what we saw, what we saw other people go through. That's when things kind of hit us."

Lieutenant Ebmeyer says they will monitor the firefighters in their department for weeks and even months from now for signs of post-traumatic stress.