Wildfire fighters work in heavy smoke, and in Canada have little protection

After 13 seasons of fighting smoky wildfires in Ontario and B.C., Ian Sachs said his body started to feel the wear and tear.

"You're often in smoke. Even on a small initial attack, you're usually breathing smoke," Sachs said.

"When you're 22 and doing it, you don't think about it. But once you get over 30 and you start feeling the burn, it creeps up on you. That I might have to think about this down the road."

Sachs said the biggest thing he began to notice about acute smoke exposure was how it lingered in his body, especially when he and other FireRangers were often camped in close proximity to the fires they were fighting.

"Waking up with a kind of smoke hangover in the morning," he said. "When that smoke settles, you're breathing it in all night and you'll wake up with that wheeze and that headache." 

Sachs said outside of COVID, he was never offered any kind of respiratory protection. But, he's not sure there were any masks that would have worked well or held a tight seal in wildfire conditions.

"You're in the forest. You're taking branches to the face. You're wet. You're sweaty. You're hot. And you're out there doing 16-hour days and then you wear something when you're sleeping in your tent at night?  Probably not. It's just I don't know if they can really design something for wildland fire."

Indeed, the environment of a wildland fire does make it harder to find a mask that works comfortably, and isn't too bulky to carry for long days and distances.

Still, with wildfire risk growing in Canada and firefighters facing elevated levels of cancer, some are unwilling to accept the status quo where there are no requirements for respiratory protection.

In Canada, more than 85 per cent of firefighter fatality claims are attributed to cancer, and research from numerous studies has shown firefighters are at high risk of a number of illnesses, including lung and breast cancer.

International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) says those same diseases are associated with wildfire smoke.

Neil McMillan, the director of science and research for the Occupational Health, Safety and Medicine Division of the IAFF, said his organization is concerned about the increased incidence, frequencies and severity of wildfires across Canada and the lack of speciality protective masks for those on the front lines. 

"Unfortunately, there isn't a great standard presently for firefighters that have to work in dynamic fire situations, in wildland and wildland urban interface settings in other places across the globe,"' said McMillan.

"There's no real mandatory requirements for proper respiratory protection that filters out carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and these fine particulates that we know are associated to the diseases that are killing firefighters.