A punch in the gut
Latest federal cuts drop protections for those who protect us

You probably don’t 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’t know much about the very real health risks of the job. Now, it’s getting harder for anyone to know.

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 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 Trump in his first term. 

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.

It was groundbreaking for the National Firefighter Registry to recognize and include the unique job hazards posed by those who fight fires. You might assume wildland firefighters protect themselves with breathing masks, but that is not the case.

This kind of 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’ve been a federal wildland firefighter for 35-plus 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. 

Now I work for an organization that encourages wildland firefighters – especially those who work for federal agencies – to sign up for this cancer registry. I know we’re a challenging profession to study as we’re somewhat nomadic, assigned to wildfires across the West all summer, often in remote places. That helps explain why there has been so much less research on wildland firefighters than on structure firefighters. And there’s nearly no specific research on women firefighters. To be included was a major step.

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 went dark. The National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety confirmed that the website was shut down because no support staff were left to manage it. 

The International Association of Firefighters, a powerful union that represents many municipal fire departments (but not firefighters in the Forest Service, BLM or Park Service), went directly to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to fight for restoration of this program and several others. Kennedy promised to bring them all back and kept his promise. 

But he did not address the staffing issue, and he didn’t say whether researchers who were let go would be re-hired. No one knows what will happen to the data already collected.

A related firefighter health issue is “presumptive health.” It presumes that firefighters diagnosed with certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases got those illnesses as a result of their work. Before 2022, it was nearly impossible for a federal wildland firefighter to prove to the Labor Department’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs that they had become ill because of hazards faced on the job.  

But in 2022, the Labor Department declared that federal firefighters are at increased risk of certain types of cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Congress codified this declaration into law in 2023 and established a special claims website. 

Now, that website is also down. 

A Forest Service firefighter I spoke with called the staff cuts just another “punch in the gut.”   

He added, “We’re getting ready to go into what looks like another challenging fire season with yet another distraction to worry about. But, when the fire call comes, we’ll respond like we always do and worry later.” 

It should not have to be this way.

Riva Duncan is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She spent 30 years with the U.S. Forest Service in wildland fire and forestry and is vice president of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters,  www.grassrootswildlandfirefighters.com.