Bringing comfort at the scene

Young Chang

When the matter really is about life and death, spiritual answers and

guidance become all the more necessary, chaplains say.

That’s why the Costa Mesa Fire Department began its own chaplain

program about two weeks ago to provide its officers with spiritual

support.

“They’re faced more often with the finiteness [of life], and they deal

with people in those crisis situations, and I believe that’s where they

see the chaplaincy program being most beneficial to them,” said Glenn

Rouse, a chaplain with the program and an assistant pastor at Newport

Mesa Christian Center.

A recent bout of fires in Costa Mesa brought more attention to the

need for more emotional support during emergencies -- for both the

firefighters and the victims of fires, said Battalion Chief Chris Riley,

director of the chaplain program.

Something else that triggered the department’s momentum to develop

chaplain support was the tragedy of Sept. 11.

“I went back to New York on behalf of representing the Fire

Department,” Riley said. “When I saw the firemen responding so positively

to the chaplains . . . and firemen were working around the clock . . .

the chaplains were working around the clock.”

But the program started being developed well before Costa Mesa’s

string of fires and before Sept. 11.

Most fire and police departments around the country have a chaplain

program, and the city’s new one is part of Orange County Fire Authority’s

larger program.

“If the need were to occur, we would or could work alongside police

chaplains during emergencies,” Riley said.

Rouse’s job in the program will be to serve as a chaplain for the

city’s six fire stations and support them at scenes of accidents and

fires.

He had also visited New York after Sept. 11 and spoke with people who

almost lost their lives in the World Trade Center.

“Sometimes they feel guilt that their life wasn’t taken, other times

they need to connect with the god that changed their life,” Rouse said.