Some Canadian wildfire firefighters struggle to get compensated for serious illnesses

This year’s Fire season in Canada has been the worst on record for the thousands of firefighters that battled the Flames the danger doesn’t stop when the fires go out many end up suffering long-term health effects and the cbc’s Katie Nicholson joins us now with more and so Katie you’ve been looking into

The issue of compensation for these firefighters what have you learned well I apologize for that little Bang there this is um this is what one firefighter family had to go through to try and get compensation for a condition that had they not been a wildfire fighter they would have automatically gotten here in

Ontario unbelievable so just just so we understand um in the world of firefighting in Canada if you develop one of a list of cancers or in some cases cardiovascular issue it’s a presumed condition so there’s there’s legislation in place in provinces and territories that it will be automatically presumed that your illness

Has been caused as a part of your or because of your job up right as a firefighter so it’s it’s designed really to just make that process smooth so that you can easily get or at least more easily access the type of supports and and workers compensation that that you

Might need in those instances however in all but five jurisdictions in Canada the legislation has specifically excluded wildfirefighters from those presumed conditions even though they are presenting with a lot of the same illnesses as structural firefighters so this these binders here belong to one man named Tom LeBlanc now he was a wild

Firefighter here in Ontario for 35 years and back in 2009 he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma which is a it’s a very common cancer among firefighters he and his wife took a look at the legislation and they decided that they were going to still try to make a case

To the the workers compensation board that he should get a compensation for this he passed away in 2010 they had already been rejected once on his deathbed he asked his wife Kim to keep pushing and to see if they could secure coverage and she did Kim talked to me

About all of the times that he would come home with soot running out of his pores just the way he would describe what happened out in the bush sleeping next to the fires breathing in that smoke day in day out weeks at a time here’s Kim LeBlanc

Heavens to Betsy if the guys got that cancer then you need to own up it’s it’s so traumatic for families to lose somebody period the end but to lose somebody when it’s possibly could have been prevented and then the people responsible aren’t even willing to look at it or take some

Level of responsibility for it it’s it’s heartbreaking and you know some former Wildfire Fighters say they don’t even know where to go um Kim LeBlanc but it took about nine years and she was finally successful finally the wsib agreed that it was probable that her husband’s exposure to smoke and chemicals was a

Likely cause of the Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma but I spoke to another firefighter he had been out there for 20 years and then he started to have difficulty breathing he couldn’t pass the test the physical every year and then years later he developed a kidney cancer he lost one of his kidneys and a

Day I was supposed to interview him actually this summer he had a heart attack and then he he finally recuperated I interviewed him just last week here’s a little of Simon Chateau there and just sort of the struggle he’s had you’re breathing smoke and Ash constantly you can be out in Fires for

For weeks sometimes so you do uh breathe a lot of smoke and eat a lot of ice well some answers would be nice you know is this because of you know it was my missing a kidney because of the firefighting and and you know whatever so both Simon and Kim LeBlanc would

Really like to see Wildfire Fighters brought in to the legislation in this province and there are numerous other provinces where again they are not included in that presumed legislation so why not why aren’t they covered and why all this awful paperwork it’s it’s really hard to get a handle on it but

You have to realize that this for years has been a seasonal job it’s been something that people have done in a short-term basis and it’s perhaps not been as organized as as a municipal firefighters are very well organized strong union base behind them but also the research has been a little bit behind

Um for Forest firefighters it’s really well known that firefighters structural firefighters have a much higher risk of cancer that they’re exposed to treated lumber all kinds of materials and there’s always been this presumption that somehow Wildfire smoke was more wholesome was less risky and of course

The the science is not bearing that out so as the science is changing we’re seeing legislation change in a number of different jurisdictions Dr T getati he’s one of the foremost experts in this field looking at what the effects of wildfire fighting and structural firefighting are on the health of

Firefighters here’s his take on how that’s changing for wildfirefighters the presumption has always mean that has always been that that structural firefighters are a greater risk that may or may not be true but it doesn’t mean the Wildland firefighters aren’t at increased risk as well and increasingly a Wildland firefighting

Means firefighting at the Wildland Urban interface so you’re dealing with burning structures that are adjacent to our uh surrounded by wildlands in addition to the Wildland fires themselves so right now in in this country it’s only BC Nova Scotia New Brunswick Quebec and and Manitoba which have in the

Legislation uh that while firefighters can uh or are sort of a part of this presumed um sort of under the presumptions they’re covered by that but everywhere else including Alberta where we had incredible wildfires um those those wildfirefighters are not are not covered by this presumed legislation so it’s sort of an ongoing

Issue we’ve talked to the International Association of firefighters and their take on this uh Andrew is that a fire is a fire is a fire and it doesn’t matter who the firefighter is what what type of fire they’re fighting they’re putting themselves at risk and they should get

This type of coverage important story Katie thank you the cbc’s Katie Nicholson

For Canadian wildfire firefighters, the danger doesn’t always end once the blazes are under control. Many end up suffering from long-term illnesses as a result of their work and can struggle to get compensation depending on where in the country they live.

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