Firefighter's testimony sheds light on those carrying emotional weight of deadly wildfires

REDDING, Calif. — Out of the top ten deadliest and most destructive wildfires, Battalion Chief Josh Campbell has been a Division Chief or Branch Leader on seven of them. The toll of destruction carried with him through the front lines of the Carr and Camp Fires to the point where Campbell couldn't bear the emotional weight anymore. This comes at a time when first responder suicides are outnumbering line of duty deaths. Campbell shares his story to encourage other firefighters to seek help.

Josh Campbell is a Cal Fire Battalion Chief with the Fresno Kings Unit. In his career, Campbell has experienced extreme fire behavior before but nothing like what he witnessed in 2018. He was a Branch Leader for Cal Fire on the 2018 Carr Fire and played a key role in life-saving efforts on the devastating Camp Fire later that year.

Sleepless nights thinking of those he could not save added up as he has felt responsible for the lives lost.

"I don't think when you sign up for this job that you realize the things that you're going to see," Campbell said. "Once we started dealing with the Camp fire, the Carr fire, Thomas fire, all those fires just blew it away, and you're like, 'good grief, is it ever going to end."

Campbell was working alongside Dozer Operator Don Smith and Redding Fire Inspector Jeremy Stoke when they were killed in the Carr Fire. It was an unprecedented overtake of flames and the first wildfire out of two decades where he called his family to say he wouldn't make it home this time.

"To learn of two fatalities on your branch in basically an hour's time will set you back. I just basically told them you know it's the one time in my life in 22 years where I didn't know if I would ever see them again. I really didn't," Campbell said in an interview in July of 2018 as fire crews were working from Shasta Lake to fight the north end of the fire by boat.

Campbell said he refused the Incident Command's suggestion to take time off and instead worked for three months straight where he played major roles in strategizing the fire response during the Carr, Hirz and Delta Fires in Shasta County.

"I put a mask on every single day," Campbell said. "Had a job to do, but deep down inside, I was broke beyond belief."

Campbell didn't realize the hell he had endured was about to become even more surreal driving through the deadly flames in Paradise. Taking merely ten days off between July and November, Campbell was one of the first units to respond to the Camp Fire in November 2018.

"It looked like something out of a movie," Campbell said. "Everything around you was on fire. People were running for their lives. We were doing things that haven't been done in the fire service for years."

Hours after coming home from working the Camp Fire Incident, almost through Christmas, he left his family. Campbell said shortly after he was a trigger pull away from ending his life.

"I shook," Campbell said. "I still remember what was probably a minute or two seemed like an eternity, and all I could think about was my family."

Cal Fire helped get professional help for Campbell and his family. Today the Battalion Chief is back to work and uses his story of survival to open the dialogue for other firefighters and first responders.

Since Campbell's openness, other firefighters have come forward with similar struggles. New legislation was signed in October 2019 regarding firefighters and mental health. As of January, the law now assures post-traumatic stress is a compensated work injury, something even local agencies are evaluating.