For 14 years, Billy Stewart responded to a wide variety of emergencies and risks as a Calgary firefighter, but risks that couldn’t be seen are now taking a toll.
While making his son breakfast, Stewart noticed strange bouts of nausea that prompted a trip to the emergency room.
“I noticed that I had a weird chemical-like taste in my throat and in my nose,” Stewart recalled.
After several tests at the hospital, a CT-scan revealed a diagnosis that took Stewart by surprise.
“Doctor comes back and he’s like: ‘I don’t have good news for you, Billy. The CT-scan is showing a brain tumor, actually two brain tumors.'”
Surgeons managed to remove 95 per cent of Stewart’s tumours during a 13-hour procedure, but removing the remaining five per cent could’ve risked the area of his brain that controls eyesight.
That was five years ago, and Stewart said he is fortunate to be doing so well after such a diagnosis.
He receives a checkup every few months but cannot return to his former duties as a firefighter.
“It’s that bullet you’re not going to see, so take care of yourselves out there,” Stewart said. “It’s not a joke.”
It’s stories like Stewarts that the Calgary Firefighters’ Association is sharing through a campaign to raise awareness of the cancer risks associated with firefighting.
January is Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month, and associations that represent firefighters across the province are hoping to shed light on the “epidemic in the fire service.”
“When we respond to residential structure fires and we’re going in to save someone and do a rescue, our firefighters are exposed to over 250 carcinogens when they’re doing that search,” association president Codey McIntyre told Global News.
Studies have shown several of those carcinogens come from materials around the home like plastics and other petrochemical products.
In Calgary, 26 firefighters have died due to occupational-related cancers over the last decade.
It’s a statistic that Calgary’s fire chief hopes will decline in the future due to changing practices and improved equipment.
“There are so many ways that we look at this now and we won’t stop looking, we’re going to continue looking,” Chief Steve Dongworth said. “Hopefully what we’re going to see though, is that the things we’re doing today will have an impact in 10, 20, 30 years time.”
According to Dongworth, local firefighters are subject to yearly medical examinations and are encouraged to report all potential exposures to toxic materials.
The Calgary Fire Department has also implemented a “clean cab concept,” Dongworth said, in which firefighters exposed to toxic fumes during a fire response must have their equipment and clothing decontaminated on scene and bagged up for a more stringent cleaning.
Firefighters are also restricted from wearing contaminated gear around the fire hall.
Dongworth said the fire department is also consistently looking at research into the protective equipment used by firefighters when they respond to an emergency.
This includes newer flash hoods, which are worn under the helmet to protect the skin.
“The ones we bought now, very much more expensive, but a great investment because they have a membrane that stops some of those toxins and carcinogens getting through what was just a fabric flash hood before,” Dongworth said.
“We’re constantly on the lookout for better personal protective equipment, better breathing equipment, better what we call bunker gear, or duty gear, the kind of coats and pants you see firefighters wearing.”
Stewart said he has support for his family, as his cancer is one of the 17 occupational cancers covered by the Workers Compensation Board for firefighters here in Alberta.
According to the Alberta Firefighters Association, there are efforts to add four more cancers to that list based on emerging studies that confirm a link to firefighting.
“Firefighters are proud to serve and protect their fellow citizens, and we enter the profession knowing its many dangers, including statistically higher rates of certain cancers,” Alberta Firefighters’ Association president Matt Osborne said in a statement.
“But we’re also committed to reducing the terrible toll cancer has taken on our profession.”
The government of Alberta confirmed those conversations with firefighters’ associations are ongoing.
In 2003, the province enacted the Firefighters’ Primary Site Cancer Regulation, which provides workers’ compensation coverage to firefighters with a specified number of years on the job as it presumes certain cancers and other diseases are occupational.
“Firefighters and other first responders take tremendous risks to protect our lives and property and deserve to be compensated for their sacrifices,” Alberta minister of Labour and Immigration, Tyler Shandro, said in a statement.
“Every time that tone goes off, we’re walking into something,” Stewart said. “That something could be what does us in one way or the other.”
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