DAYTON — Three apartment fires across the Miami Valley caused dozens of people to lose almost everything they own and an emotional burden they did not see coming.
News Center 7′s Taylor Robertson talked to an expert about how people who suffer these losses can take care of their mental health.
In the past week, at least 50 people had to find somewhere else to stay after the place they called home burned to the ground.
Chad Guess, who lives in Washington Twp., said “I’ll start to fall asleep, and I’ll wake back up because I don’t want to catch on fire like the way I woke up.”
Guess lost everything when his apartment in Washington Township caught fire, and now it’s taking a toll on him.
“When I got out of the building, the fire. I walked over and stood across the parking lot at the leasing office, and I was just watching the place go down,” Guess said.
The Director of the Auglaize County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, Troy Anderson, said, “It’s stuff that can’t be replaced or in their minds cannot be replaced,”
Anderson has worked for the Auglaize Co. EMA for 20 years.
“Being not able to sleep, we’re going get into depression. Then, we’re going to get into anxiety, and it continues to escalate and to the point, it could get worse,” Anderson said.
He said this is the time now for people like Guess to work on their mental health through counseling or your ministry, even though it may not be easy to do at the moment.
“They start feeling that they’re at fault or something like that, and that’s where we need to get them help,” Anderson said. “It’s nothing to look down at. It’s something to build up and get that to where he can get some kind of normalcy back. The longer it waits, the worse it’s going to get,”
Anderson’s advice for those that know someone who may be dealing with this – “Don’t promise anything that you can’t do but be a good ear to listen to them.”
If you’re struggling and having a hard time finding someone to talk to, you can call 988. It’s a mental health hotline where people are available 24/7.
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