Firefighter Safety Stand Down 2025 – Now What?

The 2025 Firefighter Safety Stand Down wrapped up a powerful week, the theme being Break the Stigma: Behavioral Health RESET.  The daily topics laid out were Recognize, Educate, Strategies, Empower, and Training.

This past week, departments across the country shifted from their daily routine to focus on a behavioral reset and breaking the stigma around our mental wellness. With this year’s theme, departments likely reviewed their SOPs/SOGs, learned new strategies, and hopefully engaged in honest and vulnerable conversations about mental wellness.

And now, as the social media posts fall into the abyss, the PowerPoint slides closed, and the training room empties out, the question that lingers - perhaps uncomfortably - is, What now?

Safety Is Not a Weeklong Event

When a Safety Stand Down becomes just another box checked off the training calendar, we’ve missed the mark entirely. It is impossible to build and cultivate a culture of mental wellness in five days. Building a culture occurs every single shift - at roll call, during training, while checking rigs, and on the fireground when we speak up for each other, even if it’s uncomfortable.

The real challenge begins when the spotlight fades and we return to our daily routines. This is when our commitment is truly tested. Will we continue to prioritize our mental wellness and that of our brothers and sisters? Will we challenge the status quo with respect and courage? Will our chiefs, company officers, and firefighters stay accountable to the promises made this week?

Beyond the Buzzwords

Psychological safety. Post Traumatic Growth. Resilience. These are more than slogans - they're lifelines. But they only matter if we translate them into daily behaviors.

• Did we just talk about mental wellness - or did we take steps to integrate peer support, coaching, and destigmatized access to help?

• Did we review our mental wellness strategies with a genuine eye for improvement - or just nod through another PowerPoint?

• Did we give our members a safe space to voice concerns and ask questions - or did we just tell them to "watch and learn"?

  
  

We can’t afford to let this be a once-a-year ritual. The fireground won’t wait. Complacency kills.

Leadership at Every Level

No matter your shirt color or years in the fire service, YOU influence the culture. Chiefs and company officers are charged with setting the tone - but every firefighter can model accountability and humility. Safety is everyone’s job.

So here’s a challenge: Pick one commitment you made during Safety Stand Down - and make it permanent. Maybe it's improving your physical conditioning, mentoring a probie, learning more about mental wellness, or simply taking mental wellness training more seriously. Start there. Own it.

What Now?

Now, we prove the value of this week through our actions. Not by what we post, but by what we practice. Safety Stand Down may be over - but the stand up starts now.

Let’s stand up for the proactive changes we say we want. Let’s stand up for each other when things are tough. Let’s stand up for our families counting on us to come home.

The work isn’t done - it’s just beginning.

The article was written by Battalion Chief CJ Dickinson (a 26-year veteran of the Fire & Emergency Service community)