Bipartisan bill aims to expand health protections for wildland firefighters

WASHINGTON — After one of Utah's most destructive wildfire seasons in recent years, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is backing legislation designed to improve health and safety protections for wildland firefighters.

The proposed Wildland Firefighter Health and Safety Act has support from Republicans and Democrats in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

Advocates say the bill would provide new resources to address the long-term health risks firefighters face while battling increasingly frequent and powerful wildfires.

"Vehicle accidents, aircraft accidents, they have taken many lives this summer," said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. "But, for a lot of other really young, strong bodies, they are afflicted by illnesses and injuries that (they) may not even be aware of until later on."

Ingalsbee's organization has endorsed the legislation, which would create a task force and advisory council made up of wildland firefighters to help develop policies aimed at reducing workplace injuries and illnesses.

"The goal is early detection," he said. "Rarely do ground-level firefighters get any voice in policymaking. So this advisory council will help determine what are the many health hazards, physical and mental, affecting firefighters."

Republican Utah Sen. John Curtis is among the lawmakers supporting the bill.

"We need to protect these people who do so much to protect us," Curtis said.

Curtis pointed to Utah's challenging fire season as evidence of the need for additional protections.

"We've had over half a million acres burned. We've had over 1,000 fires," he said.

Alliance for Wildfire Resilience also backs the proposed bill. Managing director Annie Schmidt said the group is excited about the progress toward respiratory protection that the bill offers, including a two-year pilot program testing that.

"It's unlikely that any single bill is going to address all of our challenges," Schmidt told KSL. "Hopefully, through the establishment of the task force that the bill puts in place and this pilot program, we'll have a better understanding of what next steps are."

Ingalsbee said, unlike urban and structural firefighters, wildland firefighters have nothing covering their nose and mouth.

"It's not just smoke; there's dust and a lot of toxic chemicals, particularly when wildfires enter urban environments," he said. "It's all full of petrochemical substances that create really hazardous chemical clouds. They also have a lot of toxic substances in their tools and equipment that can enter through skin contact. Even the food they eat, it can be laced with heavy metals and really toxic preservatives."

The bill would also compensate firefighters for time spent decontaminating equipment, clothing and vehicles after assignments.

"This bill is offering to pay firefighters for that necessary duty," Ingalsbee said. "Why should this be part of their very limited free time?"

Ingalsbee called the measure an important step toward recognizing and addressing the occupational health risks wildland firefighters face.

"Horrible diseases, rare cancers affecting young people, in particular, female firefighters face a lot of medical risks from the current environment and their exposure to these toxins affecting their reproductive health, and so that shouldn't be the cost of helping protect communities and public lands," he said.

Curtis said he recently spoke with a Utah firefighter friend who was diagnosed with cancer, likely linked to years of exposure to harmful chemicals on the job.

The senator described the legislation as a common-sense approach to protecting firefighters and praised the bipartisan support it has received in Congress.

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