Michelle Garcia is a formerly incarcerated firefighter who worked in Ventura, California, for nearly two years, making $1 an hour fighting some of the state’s toughest wildfires. They often have no respite: firefighters regularly work 14-plus-hour days, and then camp near a fire for weeks on end.
WILDLAND FIRE MAN PURSE WINDOWS
But as the rest of us are told to stay inside, close the windows and use a HEPA filter, wildland firefighters are running toward the smoke. Microscopic particles from wildfires, called PM2.5, are bad for everyone, causing inflammation that can lead to serious respiratory and, to a lesser degree, heart problems. Tiny pollutants from wildfire smoke can be inhaled deep into lungs. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that from 2000 to 2019, 400 wildland firefighters died on the job, but this may hide slower, quieter illnesses and death. Research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that some female firefighters may have an increased risk of breast cancer due to their exposure to PFAS, “forever chemicals” used in firefighting foams and gear that can affect the immune system and have been linked to cancer.īut there have been fewer studies on wildland firefighters, who battle increasingly long and hostile fire seasons. More recent research suggests that leukemia is a concern, too. Two studies by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health concluded that firefighters face a 9% increase in cancer diagnoses and a 14% increase in cancer-related deaths compared to the general population. That makes them vulnerable to respiratory, digestive and urinary cancers, and twice as likely as the average American to get mesothelioma, an aggressive and rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure. They are regularly exposed to an array of chemicals: those baked into the protective clothing they wear and essential to the fire retardants that they use, and others emitted from the many materials that can alight, such as couches, TVs and Barbie dolls. After 11 years as a seasonal firefighter, he finally took his dad’s advice, deciding it’s simply not worth the risk.įor decades, researchers have studied occupational health risks for cancer rates among structural firefighters - those who douse burning buildings. He suggested to his middle son, who wanted to be a career wildland firefighter, that he rethink the dream. “As I’ve seen wildfire behavior over the decades get worse, I’ve become concerned about the nature of what my kids are exposed to,” Hessburg says.
Once able to easily hike 20 miles in a day, he found his capacity diminished after a particularly smoky summer working in Idaho three years ago. Forest Service scientist researching the behavior of wildfires. Paul Hessburg is a former wildland firefighter who also spent 36 years as a U.S. Hessburg is now encouraging his children, who wanted to follow in their dad’s footsteps, not to pursue wildland firefighting. “I used to think I was bulletproof,” he says. He’s not sure he’ll ever be able to recover. He has tried to train his way back to health, but two years later he says he’s still not back to normal. He read studies about wildfire smoke and respiratory health, and thought maybe he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma. “It was the first time I ever noticed that I had to stop and get some air as we were going along,” he says, estimating that his pace was halved.īack home in Wenatchee, Hessburg, wondering what decades of smoke did to his lungs, looked up his symptoms. The next year Hessburg went hiking with his daughter in Lake Chelan, an annual family tradition. They persevered, putting wet cloths over their mouths, making things a little more comfortable. And there was no respite at night, with Hessburg and his team camping amid smoke trapped in Idaho’s mountain valleys. Three summers back, he spent a month in Idaho’s Selway Bitterroot Wilderness when fires in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon made it “cloudy down to the ground.” N95 masks, recommended to help keep out tiny particles like those in wildfire smoke, were simply impractical during intense, huffing-and-puffing hikes required to monitor the landscape. Forest Service, where for the last 36 years he’s studied what makes landscapes particularly vulnerable to fire.Īll this has required years of camping and climbing through rough terrains for weeks on end, often under a blanket of smoke. He began his career as a wildland firefighter, and then worked for the U.S. He says they’re “of a mountain goat,” toned and sturdy after years of 20-mile-a-day hikes, sometimes pushing 50 miles for a real challenge.
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