You probably don\u2019t see wildland firefighters on the job because they usually work in remote areas. But with wildfires moving from the backcountry to backyards, the public is becoming more aware of the men and women who do this dangerous work. At the same time, people probably don\u2019t know much about the very real health risks of the job. Now, it\u2019s getting harder for anyone to know.<\/p>\n
On April 1, the Trump administration began laying off most of the staff working on the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer. The registry was proposed in a bill in 2018 so researchers could study why all firefighters, structure and wildland, suffer from certain types of cancers at much higher rates than the rest of the population. The bill was passed unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in his first term<\/a>.<\/p>\n The registry was open to all U.S. firefighters — career, volunteer, wildland, active or retired. Participants completed a confidential survey about their service history with data linked to state cancer registries to spot trends and risks.<\/p>\n It was groundbreaking for the National Firefighter Registry to recognize and include the unique job hazards posed by those who fight fires in the backcountry and areas close to homes. You might assume wildland firefighters protect themselves with breathing masks, but that is not the case.<\/p>\n This personal protective equipment is unworkable because wildland firefighting includes hiking for miles and digging in the dirt for days and weeks at a time. I\u2019ve been a federal wildland firefighter for more than 35 years all over the nation. Too many times to count, I have worked on wildfires and prescribed burns where thick, acrid smoke had us on our knees gagging, tears streaming from our eyes, and our noses dripping gunk.<\/p>\n Now I work for an organization that encourages wildland firefighters — especially those who work for federal agencies \u2014 to sign up for this cancer registry. I know we\u2019re a challenging profession to study as we\u2019re somewhat nomadic, assigned to wildfires across the West all summer, often in remote places. That helps explain why there\u2019s been so much less research on wildland firefighters than on structure firefighters. And there\u2019s nearly no specific research on women firefighters. For women to be included was a major step.<\/p>\n More than 23,000 firefighters have signed up for the National Firefighter Registry since it went live in 2023, and thousands more are eligible to join. But with all the layoffs of federal workers, the registry website stopped. The National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety confirmed that the program was shut down because no support staff were left to manage the website.<\/p>\n