When a firefighter dies within the line of responsibility, a small crew of federal well being staff is usually referred to as on to pinpoint what went fallacious and establish the best way to keep away from related accidents sooner or later.
That’s what occurred after two firefighters died in California in 2020 whereas looking for an aged girl in a burning library. It occurred in 2023 when a Navy firefighter died in Maryland after a flooring collapsed in a burning house. And it occurred final 12 months in Georgia when a profession battalion chief died after a semitrailer truck exploded.
However President Donald Trump’s administration has taken steps to fireplace practically all the Division of Well being and Human Providers staff chargeable for conducting these evaluations.
Not less than two-thirds of the staff on the Nationwide Institute for Occupational Security and Well being, an company inside HHS, had been notified on April 1 that they’d been laid off or can be in June. These cuts included seven of the eight members of the Hearth Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, the crew that research firefighter line-of-duty deaths, one of many laid-off investigators advised ProPublica.
Most nonunionized NIOSH staff got till the tip of the day to filter their desks. The layoffs had been so abrupt, employees mentioned, that lab animals had been left with out employees to look after them and needed to be euthanized, and an experimental mine used to check protecting gear beneath the company’s Pittsburgh campus was susceptible to flooding and polluting the encircling surroundings.
“It was pure chaos,” one other NIOSH worker mentioned.
The fatality investigation crew was analyzing deaths at 20 fireplace departments when the layoff notices arrived. These probes at the moment are unlikely to be accomplished, the investigator mentioned.
“The entire intent of this program was that folks would be taught by tragedy — what occurred to at least one individual — so we will stop it from taking place to others,” the investigator mentioned.
The administration’s strikes may also halt a first-of-its-kind examine of the causes of 1000’s of firefighters’ most cancers instances and disrupt a program that gives well being care to emergency personnel who responded to the World Commerce Middle terrorist assaults.
ProPublica spoke with 5 NIOSH staff who both led or contributed to firefighter well being initiatives and acquired layoff notices. Most requested anonymity for worry of retribution from the administration.
“The existence of NIOSH is a hard-earned proper by the individuals of America to have a wholesome and protected working surroundings,” mentioned Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vp of the American Federation of Authorities Staff Native 3840, which represents company staff. “That is an assault on NIOSH staff and federal staff, however it’s also an assault on American staff typically.”
Neither the White Home nor Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity, which has referred to as the photographs on lots of the administration’s cuts, responded to a request for remark. A NIOSH spokesperson referred inquiries to HHS.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made some public indications that facets of the World Commerce Middle program may very well be spared, however particulars stay sparse. The division’s spokesperson mentioned in a press release that packages required by legislation — comparable to a few of these targeted on firefighter well being — will proceed to function.
They didn’t reply to a follow-up query about how these packages will proceed after their staffs had been terminated.
“It Breaks My Coronary heart”
The investigations carried out by the Hearth Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program are initiated on the request of the fireplace division that suffered the casualty. The findings are shared with the firefighter’s household in hopes of offering some closure. And the studies are then printed, so the broader firefighting neighborhood can strengthen its procedures to keep away from related losses.
The Trump administration had already hamstrung this system shortly after the inauguration, initially barring the investigative crew from touring to conduct analysis, speaking with different businesses and publishing studies, based on the investigator. Whereas the division ultimately allowed a number of of the casualty studies to be printed, the remainder stay unfinished.
“It breaks my coronary heart that we’re going to simply destroy these packages which have made a lot progress in defending the well being and security of our firefighting neighborhood,” the investigator mentioned.
The layoff discover the investigator acquired from HHS mentioned that termination of a lot of the company’s employees was “as a result of your duties have been recognized as both pointless or nearly an identical to duties being carried out elsewhere within the company.”
“Management at HHS are appreciative of your service,” the discover acknowledged.
The federal firefighting pressure faces a frightening 12 months, with spending cuts canceling prescribed burns to scale back flammable vegetation and the termination of a whole bunch of firefighting help employees, even within the face of climate-change-lengthened wildfire seasons.
“At a time once we should be bolstering these efforts and personnel, it’s fairly rattling appalling that we’d be making an attempt to decrease the well being advantages for our firefighters and first responders,” a Forest Service firefighter mentioned.
Dismantling the World’s Largest Firefighter Most cancers Examine
On April 1, the Trump administration additionally started shedding a lot of the employees engaged on the Nationwide Firefighter Registry for Most cancers.
Its creation in 2018 was a landmark win in a yearslong combat to review why firefighters undergo from sure forms of most cancers at vastly larger charges than the overall inhabitants. Each chambers of Congress unanimously handed the invoice to create the registry. Trump signed it into legislation throughout his first time period.
Whereas HHS mentioned in a press release that packages required by legislation would stay intact, it didn’t reply a query about whether or not it could convey again employees to maintain the registry operating.
Wildland firefighters don’t sometimes put on respirators whereas they’re uncovered to excessive ranges of smoke. And the protecting clothes firefighters put on whereas battling lively blazes incorporates excessive ranges of PFAS, or “endlessly chemical compounds,” which have been linked to varied forms of most cancers. However the precise causes of some cancers that happen at excessive charges amongst firefighters should not properly understood. Feminine-specific cancers comparable to ovarian and cervical, for instance, have solely not too long ago been linked to firefighting.
Greater than 23,000 firefighters have signed as much as take part for the reason that registry launched in April 2023, and the analysis crew not too long ago started an outreach marketing campaign to get to 200,000 contributors. With this trove of information, NIOSH researchers deliberate to dig into quite a few under-studied questions, comparable to what office exposures led to cancers that particularly harmed feminine firefighters, a NIOSH scientist who labored on this system advised ProPublica.
Among the many 1000’s who signed up was a federal wildland firefighter who was involved about spending a profession respiratory wildfire smoke with no respirator. The choice to throw away such analysis is disturbing, the firefighter advised ProPublica. “I hoped that one thing would occur with all that analysis, that they might shield wildland firefighters.”
With a hollowed-out IT division, the registry’s portal to enroll firefighters rapidly went offline.
“It’s devastating,” mentioned Judith Graber, an affiliate professor on the Rutgers College of Public Well being and co-chair of the board that advises the registry analysis crew. She mentioned the examine is “the most important effort ever taken wherever to know most cancers in firefighters,” but it surely’s an effort that may’t merely be restarted after the researchers operating it are laid off.
Diane Cotter grew to become an activist when her husband, a profession firefighter, developed prostate most cancers, and he or she fought for funding of analysis such because the registry. Whereas she’s a Kennedy supporter, Cotter mentioned the administration went too far in slicing this system and different first responder well being initiatives such because the World Commerce Middle program, which she referred to as “sacred.”
“It’s essential we maintain the road on these research,” she mentioned.
