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Faces of the Fire: First Responder Therapy Dogs
Windy Fire
Publication Type: News 10/05/2021
The faces working behind the Windy Fire are as different and diverse as anyplace you can think of. However, these ‘Faces of the Fire’ are very unique.
Meet Moose, a 4-year-old chocolate lab, and rhino, a 1-year-old black lab. These two faces along with their handler, Emily Brown, are part of the First Responder Therapy Dogs organization.
According to Heidi Carman, Founder of First Responder Therapy Dogs, “research has shown that when you’re petting a dog, endorphins and serotonin and all those feel-good chemicals in your body are released, and the firefighters are able to have a sense of well-being.”
Emily, Moose, and Rhino visit crews and overhead personnel at fire camps and allow firefighters and staff, if only for a moment, get a chance to feel like they are back home with their dogs and have a moment of normalcy.
This is the first year the trio has been visiting firefighters at their base camps. Their efforts first began with visits to patients in hospitals and when the opportunity to branch out to the fire community came about, they enthusiastically joined in.
Emily has family members that are firefighters and knows firsthand the stress and separation that wildland firefighters must endure. Her fondest memory of assisting firefighters and their families came earlier this year at a memorial walk for a firefighter that had taken their own life. “Being able to walk with the family members, while difficult, was incredibly rewarding,” she said. 
