Every day Alabama’s firefighters serve their communities and save lives. It’s a dangerous job. Those who do it -- face potentially deadly conditions and long-term health issues.
Over the past five years, 75-percent of first responders added to the International Association of Fire Fighters’ Memorial died from occupational cancer.
In fact -- firefighting is on the top ten list of jobs for high cancer rates.
“There is over 80,000 know toxins in a house fire,” explains the President of Professional Firefighters of Alabama, David Harer. “The fire now doubles in size every three minutes where before it was fifteen minutes. So, you can see the dangers in the, you know, all the toxins and the plastics.”
Those toxins mean firefighters are 9-percent more likely to get cancer.
But, new technology and protocols are being implemented across the country to help protect the men and women on the front line.