Winnipeg firefighter trapped in fatal 2007 blaze still battles PTSD

WATCH: Recognizing PTSD as an occupational hazard

WINNIPEG – Ed Wiebe remembers waking up on his back, stuck to a melting carpet in the inferno that had been a St. Boniface home.

“It was like being in hell,” the firefighter says of the evening eight years ago.

He fumbled for his hose, placed it between his hands and knees and passed out again. A rescue team found him at the top of the stairs, slumped over his hose.

“I remember feeling that I was being lifted up, and then I was put onto a stretcher,” he says.

An ambulance door slammed and then he remembers nothing for eight days.

RELATED: In Harm’s Way: The PTSD crisis among Canada’s first responders

Wiebe was one of six Winnipeg firefighters on the second floor of a home on Gabrielle Roy Place when everything went wrong on Feb. 4, 2007. Three of them found their own way out of the inferno that blazed down from the attic – a flashover. Capt. Harold Lessard, 55, of Platoon 3, Station 1 – Wiebe’s station – and Capt. Thomas Nichols, 57, of Platoon 3, Station 2, were killed. Weibe was the sixth.

He suffered critical injuries and was in a coma for eight days, his wife by his side, waiting to find out if he’d survive.

“I woke up Feb. 12 and I hurt all over,” says the 26-year firefighting veteran.

Wiebe suffered third-degree burns over most of his body; nine of his fingers were amputated. He still battles the pain of his injuries.

READ MORE: Ed Wiebe’s story on the Health Sciences Centre Foundation website

But in many ways, the hardest part has been dealing with the psychological damage, he says.

“Even just hearing the names Harold and Tom … these are some of the things that brought about anxiety, panic attacks, nauseous, flashbacks,” he says.

“I have PTSD.”

WATCH: Ed Wiebe talks about Feb. 4, 20007, and his resulting PTSD on the Morning News.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is an occupational hazard for first responders such as Wiebe and governments need to recognize that, advocacy groups say.

At least four Canadian first responders have killed themselves since Jan. 1, according to the Tema Conter Memorial Trust, which tracks suicides among firefighters, police officers, paramedics, corrections officers and other first responders. At least 34 have killed themselves since April 29, the trust says.

READ MORE: 4 Canadian first responders have killed themselves since New Year’s

Workers compensation laws in Alberta and B.C. have been changed so workers living with PTSD are presumed to have the disease as a direct result of their jobs. The Manitoba government is working on similar changes to legislation, which would make it easier for those with PTSD to get compensation while seeking treatment.

“Full-blown clinical PTSD is a serious disgnosis,” says Dr. Jeff Morley, a psychologist and former member of the RCMP who treats first responders. “It limits lives, it destroys relationships, it puts people off work, and in some cases, as sadly we’re learning … it can be terminal.”

BLOG: PTSD – The silent killer

“You can’t put a time limit on it,” Wiebe says. “You can’t say you’ve seen your psychologist for eight session, or 10 session, and you’re healed. I don’t think you should put a limit on what it’s going to take to deal with these ugly, intrusive thoughts.”

He hopes Manitoba’s new legislation will change the limitations.

Wiebe didn’t go back to work for years, but on his first day back, he returned to the fire site on Gabrielle Roy Place and rode the fire truck – Engine 101 – back to his old No. 1 Station.

“It was very therapeutic for me to move on, to be able to put that behind me to some degree.”

He now works two days a week as a trainer. He thinks it’s important that he be there to help young recruits understand the dangerous nature of the job.

“I’ll never be back to 100 per cent of what I was, but I’m doing what I can,” he says.

That includes becoming involved in advocacy for those living with PTSD.

“The post-traumatic stress disorder is something that I don’t think will ever leave me completely,” Wiebe says.

“It sneaks up behind you and affects you when you least expect it. … I’m not trying to minimize it, but I’m trying to deal with it, and trying not to let it capture me and drag me down too much.”

— With files from Eva Kovacs

Watch Focus Manitoba, Saturday and Sunday at 6:30 p.m., to learn more about Ed Wiebe. Watch In Harm’s Way, a closer look at PTSD, on 16×9 Saturday at 7 p.m.