By Lydia McFarlane | WVIA News
When Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney started fighting fires in the 1970s, returning to a home station covered in soot was a badge of honor.
“If you had dirty turnout gear, and it was all sooty, you were the firefighter,” Delaney said. “Right now we shouldn’t see [that] because that’s what’s killing us.”
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The chief wants the younger generation of firefighters to take health and safety more seriously. That means handling their gear differently after a fire is out.
“We want to change the culture in the fire service, not just the Wilkes Barre City Fire Department but across the country,” Delaney said. “Change the culture with our turnout gear, use this science and this education that we’re all receiving and try now for the next generation of firefighters, for them to stay safe and cut down on cancer.”
Cancer caused 60% of line-of-duty deaths in firefighters between 2006 and 2019, according to the Firefighter Cancer Support Network. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research found firefighters 9% likelier to develop cancer and with a 14% higher chance of dying than the rest of the public.
Wilkes-Barre’s department and its firefighters union, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 104, hosted a three-day cancer screening this week for former and current firefighters. Thirty-five signed up for 30-minute screenings by United Diagnostic Services LLC for liver, gall bladder, kidney, spleen, bladder, prostate, aorta, testicular, pelvic, thyroid, carotid and heart cancers.
Assistant Fire Chief Travis Temarantz said the three most prevalent cancers in firefighters are thyroid, testicular and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Firefighters from as far away as Bethlehem traveled to Wilkes-Barre so an ultrasound technician could screen them.
Firefighters and their unions split the cost. Delaney said firefighters should get screened 10 years earlier than civilians because fires produce increased risk. Insurance companies often do not account for that.
“One of the big things [we hear is], well just go to your doctor and get the screening done. We can’t do that, especially for our younger firefighters, and we’re seeing that increase in brain cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid,” Temarantz said. “We can’t just go, because the [insurance] rule will say that we can’t just go get tested because we want to. That’s where the screening comes in. It doesn’t go through your insurance or anything like that. It’s all out of pocket.”
PFAS in firefighters’ turnout gear
Despite numerous safety measures, chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in firefighters’ turnout gear increases cancer risk, Temarantz said.
The National Cancer Institute classifies some types of PFAS as carcinogenic. PFAS is used in gear fabric because of its water- and oil-repellant properties, according to research published by the National Institute of Health from the journal Frontier.
“The technology, especially with the PFAS, is just not out there yet, but we’re still going to always battle the carcinogens that are left over,” Temarantz said.
A bill, “providing for protection against PFAS chemicals and for firefighting protective equipment; in grants to fire companies and emergency medical services companies, further providing for award of grants; and imposing penalties” passed the state house on Tuesday.
State Sen. Gene Yaw, a Republican representing Bradford, Lycoming, Sullivan, Tioga and Union counties, and Sen. Nick Miller, a Democrat who represents part of Northampton County, are also collaborating on a bill to ban PFAS in firefighting foam.
Their bill’s sponsorhip memo says they want to “limit the manufacturing, sale, distribution, and use of firefighting foam containing PFAS beginning in 2026.”
“Our proposal would allow fire companies to utilize their fire company and emergency medical services grant funding to mitigate the small cost of disposal of PFAS-laden foam and work with the state fire commissioner to work with (the Department of Environment Protection) to ensure proper disposal of the foam.”
The International Fire Chiefs Association found wear-and-tear on turnout gear can increase the amount of PFAS chemicals released. But Delaney said replace full sets of gear is expensive, about $7,000 each.
Safety measures to mitigate firefighters’ chemical exposure
Temarantz enforces safety measures that minimize exposure to the carcinogens.
“Shower within the hour, changing our uniforms,” Temarantz said. “There’s things that look like baby wipes, basically, that we’re cleaning ourselves off with at the scene. The chief mentioned, what we call a preliminary exposure reduction on the scene where you have a brush, you have a hose, you kind of get all the heavy stuff off of you first.”
Captain Matt Stephenson, also a registered nurse, uses his background to show other firefighters the importance of in-the-field protection.
“It used to be as soon as the fire was out, you took your air pack off and you weren’t cool if you didn’t take it off,” Stephenson said. “Now we’re leaving them on longer, and even going in after the fire, you’re wearing it, you might have a dust mask on or an N-95 (mask). You’re protecting your respiratory tract much longer. We’re doing that air monitoring, which is important as well.”
Temarantz said many firefighters don’t think of health risks apart from inhaling smoke.
“We have the general risks that are so magnified with our job of going into burning buildings,” Temarantz said. “The risk that nobody talks about is the carcinogen, the smoke, the soot, the diesel exhaust. All that contributes to our increased risk in cancer.”
Chief Delaney appreciates the industry changes since his early firefighting days.
“We have gear extractors, washers [and] dryers at each of our three fire stations,” he said. “When the firefighter gets done with the call, now, instead of just putting his gear on the rack and letting it dry, it’ll be laundered. We get those carcinogens out. We’ve invested a lot of money in the last five years to bring these things for the firefighters to use to keep them healthier.”
The department also added measures to combat inhaling firetruck diesel exhaust.
“The city put in diesel capture systems in a lot of firehouses around the area, and now they hook up to the exhaust and capture that and take it right outside so that we’re not breathing it in,” Temarantz said.
Delaney said before diesel capture systems, fire stations’ walls blackened with diesel residue.
Increased awareness of firefighters’ heightened cancer risk after loss of Scranton firefighter
Scranton firefighter Lieutenant Kelly Hopkins died in March after battling cancer. It is considered a line- of- duty death.
Scranton’s fire department recently held a three-day esophageal cancer screening clinic in June.
“The union did a great job of organizing that after one of our members passed away from esophageal cancer, and then annually, we do comprehensive medical exams,” Fire Chief John Judge said. “We do cancer screenings one year, do heart monitoring the next. That’s really what we’re trying to drive, is making sure that we prevent it from ever occurring.”
Judge said Scranton implemented many safety and health precautions that Wilkes-Barre follows.
He said Hopkins’ death spurred his firefighters to take their health more seriously.
“Someone close to us passes away, and then it becomes a little bit more real. Hopefully we could just kind of change the mindset and get the buy-in permanently that we’re taking care of our firefighters,” Judge said.
Changing the health culture in fire departments
This was the Wilkes-Barre department’s first screening.
Last year, Stephenson got screened at a similar event in Hazleton with only a few other firefighters.
“365 days later, we’re having a full group here,” Stephenson said. “Our members are taking advantage of it more than they did last year.”
Temarantz said he’s seen change in monitoring health and safety in just the last five years.
“That’s the mission here, having these slots filled up and understand that the education that we’re doing and the foot that we’re putting forward,” he said.
Judge said he’s proud the region’s firefighters are taking steps to further protect themselves.
“If we’re able to detect one early detection and save a life, that’s fantastic, but I think we will save more lives by actually changing the culture and making sure that they never get sick to begin with,” Judge said. “A lot of those strategies, they become cumulative. When you’re washing the gear properly, when you’re following the right standard operating procedures, and we’re making sure that we launder and making sure that we wipe ourselves down and shower afterwards, and coupling that with annual medical evaluations is really key.”
