The International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) requested Oxnard’s Fire Chief Alexander Hamilton to lead a team of peers from around the country to deploy to Surfside, Fla. They will provide peer and behavioral health support to the search and rescue teams who have been working around the clock since the devastating building collapse.
“It is an incredible honor to support the fire responders who are working 24/7 in response to this tragedy,” said Chief Hamilton. “Our goal is to ensure these dedicated professionals have the tools they need to process their experiences working on such a large-scale incident. We know how important behavioral health support is to our own personnel. Oxnard Fire Department benefited from the same mutual aid when we lost Capt. Scott Carroll, so on some level, this is an opportunity to pay that forward.”