Wildfire Fighters, Unmasked in Toxic Smoke, Are Getting Sick and Dying

Near the end of her searing report on the health hazards faced by unmasked wildfire fighters, Hannah Dreier speaks with an unnamed veteran of the Gifford fire, which has burned more than 130,000 acres and brought thousands of firefighters to the blaze. The man is “in his early 20s,” Dreier notes, and unmasked. Asked by Dreier about the smoke he inhaled, the man replied, “It’s just organic.” It’s a devastating moment, set by Dreier against the terrible health outcomes of wildfire fighters who aren’t much older and a history of resistance by the Forest Service to protecting its crews from the smoke they inhale. Devastating, too, to imagine the same moment played out again and again.

It was once thought that smoke from burning trees was basically benign, like a campfire. Then, in 1988, thousands of firefighters developed breathing problems as they fought back a monthslong fire in Yellowstone National Park. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a team to investigate.

Their researchers found that the crews were breathing in a mix of carcinogens and other harmful chemicals. The C.D.C. advised the Forest Service to ban bandannas — which offer “no degree of protection.” The gear that urban firefighters use isn’t practical for wildfires, but the C.D.C. said the Forest Service should equip crews with respirator masks. The agency rejected that advice and commissioned more studies.

Again and again, the Forest Service asked its own researchers how to better protect firefighters, and they came back with the same recommendation: Give them masks.