fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2352 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2352 ⌋

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TW: BURNS AND HOUSE FIRES

So, last night a house on our street blew up (there was a gas leak). My mom and I felt it and thought it was an earthquake at first until we went outside. Everyone on the street was evacuated for half an hour or so.

There was one guy in the house and he was severely burned (he was airlifted to a trauma burn center). I guess that guy had burns over like 90% of his body (and he may have died). I was standing very close to him (trying to calm down everyone while we waited for emergence services). I thought he had like....white wet paper towels on his arms and legs. Which I thought was odd.

That was his skin peeling off.

I just realized this about an hour ago and am having a panic attack.

OP, that is severely traumatizing! :( Lots of sympathy.

Holy shit that's intense.

You should probably talk to a health care professional about this? I mean, that's some heavy shit.

oh man, that's really frightening. :( It's definitely reasonable to be feeling that way, anon. Like the other anon said, maybe check in with a health care profesional?

Echoing you should talk to a counselor or someone with experience about this. I've witnessed some horrible stuff in my life but nothing messed me up like being a first responder to a burn victim. It was years before I talked to someone and I still have issues because I tried and failed to deal with it on my own for so long.

I'm so sorry for what you're experiencing. And my heart goes out to you and your neighbor and everyone related to this tragedy. *hugs* if you want them.

I feel silly. Because last night and this morning I was fine. It wasn't until nearly a day went by that I finally realized what I saw. And it isn't like I even knew the man, so I don't know why it is freaking me out so much now.

Hey now, it's not silly, it's good that you care enough to be freaked out now that you realize. You've got empathy! That's great! There's nothing wrong with wanting or needing to talk to someone and work it through, I'd be worried if you weren't freaking out really.

Please don't feel silly.

You saw something that's incredibly disturbing. The fact that you didn't realize it until later doesn't erase that; in fact, it can amplify it, because something you viewed as mundane has now been put in a different light. The fact that you didn't know the man doesn't matter; he's a fellow human being, and technically a neighbor, and you feel empathy for him, and that is good and natural.

You are normal. Your reaction is normal. And someone who is trained in this stuff can help you process it and get through it.

Take care and hang in there, anon. Love and light to you and to all in your area who were affected by this.

AYRT

It's not silly, not even a little. What you saw was horrific and traumatic. You didn't realize what you saw until a day went by because your brain was protecting you. You were very probably in shock and could even still be slowly coming out of it.

I'm not really comfortable going into detail and I'm not going to do that. But my own experience was that realizations came to me over time. Just when I thought I was coming to terms and coping well, something new would occur to me and set me back further than I had started out. And I didn't know the people, either, which somehow made certain things harder for me to cope with. My imagination would fill in things I didn't know about the people and the accident and explosion.

Please contact a professional to talk about this. Therapy is expensive and the chances of finding a therapist suited to helping you are pretty hit and miss. But there are better resources for you, resources that are free or at least affordable. Violent crimes hotlines are one resource, and some hospitals have programs through their burn units for people like us. Your local fire department might also be able to make recommendations or even have programs of their own. I have had the best help from from my fire department in both a counseling program they run and also getting to know some of their firemen over the years.

And I'm so sorry to do this, but I have to excuse myself from the thread now. Which is all the more reason I implore you to seek specialized help. I am certain I would be better able to cope if I had sought help sooner. I waited years and now it's been many more years and I am still a wreck. The people I've known who sought help early on are truly coping and overcoming. I don't know that I ever will.

I am gonna talk to the local PD (I am FB friends with some of them) and see what they say.

I'm glad, OP. Witnessing that kind of trauma is terribly disturbing, and I hope you can get some help.

In emergencies like this the personnel involved normally have meetings after to deal with the aftershock of this sort of thing. I know you were just a bystander but I would be in your best interest to talk to a counselor or at least with your mother. There's only so much someone who's not physically there can do for you, especially if they're untrained like we are.

I... I hope you feel better soon.

I agree with the other anons that you should see if you can find someone to talk to about it. You also shouldn't feel silly at all. My dad was a firefighter for 25 years and there were things that would still bother him (and his co-workers) when he saw them, even after that long on the job and with the supports that the department had in place.

Yikes, I'm sorry. One of my friends had a bad burn (boiling water or something), and I thought she had these big bandages on her hands. Saw her at work for about a week before I realized it wasn't bandages, that it was her poor burned hand. Glad I didn't realize it earlier, because yes, it freaked me out.

Oh my gosh, I'm sorry that that happened. I'm going to echo everyone else and say talk to a therapist. They will be able to help you cope with the flashbacks and fear. My heart goes out to you and everyone in your neighborhood. <3

[ SECRET POST #2352 ]

Story TW: Burns, House Fires

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