Smoke lingered in the heat as fire Capt. Jeff Wainwright sweltered near Hangman Valley outside Spokane this past June. Baking in his bunker gear on a wildfire assignment, he caught a whiff of himself and realized the smoke was sticking to the open pores of his skin.
Back when he was a teen, Wainwright said, he wouldn’t have thought twice about being able to smell himself, but now at 53 with a family, it’s a different story.
“It’s just crazy to me how much toxicity is in our bodies,” said Wainwright, who chairs the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters’ wildland fire and mobilization committee. “I think back now and I’m like, we’re ticking time bombs.”
America’s wildland firefighters spend long hours exerting themselves in wildfire smoke, but haven’t worn respirators while tackling wildland fire in both remote and increasingly urban areas.