Dec. 29, 2022 Henderson Fire Engineer Clete Najeeb Dadian took his own life early this month and the city’s fire chief said they are working hard to prevent similar deaths.
By Ray Brewer Source Las Vegas Sun Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Dec. 29—Editor’s note: If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 988lifeline.org. They provide free and confidential support for people in distress.
Officials with the Henderson Fire Department routinely assigned rookie firefighters to calls at scenes where Engineer Clete Najeeb Dadian was responding.
Dadian was exceptional at his job, said Chief Shawn White. He was even more exceptional as a person in bringing compassion to the calls he attended.
After a scene was clear, it was common to find Dadian sitting on a curb speaking with a resident staring down a tragedy, White said. The hope was that the kindness that came natural to Dadian, a 22-year veteran of the department, would rub off on a younger generation of firefighters.
“He inspired you to do right,” White said.
And now White plans to do right by Dadian, who died Dec. 12 by suicide at age 57. The department is using his death to shine light on the chronic workplace stress responders face from repeated exposure to traumatic events, which make them more susceptible to suicidal thoughts.
There were 127 suicides nationally reported among firefighters and EMTs in 2020, according to a study from the Ruderman Family Foundation for USA Today. The group also found 116 police officers in 2020 died by suicide, four fewer than the 112 officers who died in the line of duty.
“Public safety work, police and fire, it can (be hard) on you,” White said. “You see the worst of society. It’s not our place to judge, we come to serve.”
Seeing a child who has drowned, someone die in a domestic dispute or burned to death in a fire takes its mental toll, officials said. Those mental scars aren’t easily erased, said Mike Siuta, the president of the Henderson Fire Benevolent Association.
Siuta, like many of his firefighting colleagues, recalls an incident that has stayed with him for years. The unit Siuta was part of with Henderson was called to a house where an infant celebrating their 1st birthday was killed after being attacked by a Rottweiler. The side of the child’s face was gone.
“I can speak to my own experience,” Siuta said. “Every one of these calls, they stick with you forever. I am the father of two young kids. I can ensure you every time I am at a friends’ house with a pool and no fence, I am aware. If we are around a vicious dog, I am aware.”
Through the years, those calls where the outcome wasn’t the best can add up to the point where a first responder needs someone to speak with, Siuta said.
That’s where Jeff McClish, the public safety manager for Henderson, is working to expand the city’s outreach. McClish has been on the job for about 18 months in a position created to address the mental well-being of Henderson’s first-responders.
After a critical event, “we are immediately start working on a follow-up,” he said. “We are having conversations about how this significant event impacted the department.” That includes arranging for a first-responder to visit a mental health specialist and expanding the city’s insurance to provide more access, he said.
White said the department policy after a critical call, such as a child’s death, was to initiate trauma intervention where firefighters can air their feelings during debriefing. The process also includes peer-to-peer support teams and frequent wellness checks.
“The goal is to get those emotions and feelings out early,” White said. “Studies show that if you defuse it from the start, there is a much better outcome.”
When a first responder isn’t able to prevent a death, there’s a natural feeling of second guessing their response, White said. He pointed to a Christmas Day fatal fire in the 400 block of Cattail Circle where “there was nothing we could have done.”
“A lot of the time, we did everything we could. We did the best science, gave the best medicine, arrived on time and it just didn’t work out,” White said.
McClish says a significant part of his job is done before an incident occurs by getting to know the first-responders to build trust. If a first-responder doesn’t have that relationship, it’s more difficult for them to be vulnerable in a time of need to ask for help, he said.
Firefighters spend their shifts living at the fire stations, meaning the bond with colleagues is comparable to a second family. That bond is paramount in addressing mental health concerns, which means McClish hopes that another first responder speaks up when they notice something isn’t right with a member of the police force or fire unit.
“The brotherhood in fire service is unlike any other profession out there. We have a legitimate second family,” Siuta said. “You are spending a significant amount of time away from your first family — your real family — and dealing with the stresses of everyone else’s life and emergencies with this group of people.”
That’s why Dadian’s death is so concerning, White said. Dadian became the fourth member of the Henderson department to die by suicide in the past four years, although two of those firefighters were retired.
“It’s heart-wrenching,” he said. “We are doing some good things (with mental health), but here we are again. What can we build upon? What can we do better?”
A memorial service for Dadian is 1 p.m. today at Central Christian Church, 1001 New Beginnings Drive in Henderson. The department said it’s open to community members who wish to pay their respects.
