California senators demand PPE, greater smoke protections for wildland firefighters

For decades, firefighters facing some of the state’s most destructive wildfires worked without proper masks or respirators, despite evidence showing long-term health risks from wildfire smoke.

That’s why a bipartisan group of senators, including California Democrat Adam Schiff and Utah Republican John Curtis, introduced the first-ever respiratory protection standards for wildland firefighters on Monday.

If Congress passes the bipartisan bill, it would ensure the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior “take long overdue steps to protect the health of these heroes,” the bill’s authors said in a press release. This legislation was co-sponsored by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Tim Sheehy (R-Montana).

“Wildland firefighters deploy in the most extreme conditions to combat wildfires, preserve vital ecosystems, and save lives,” Padilla said in a press release. “These heroic men and women should not be forced to face long-term illness or premature death due to smoke exposure on the job.”

For decades, the U.S. Forest Service banned firefighters from wearing masks, arguing that they were too unwieldy for the job. In September, the Forest Service posted new guidance, paving the way for the new legislation.

Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021.

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Under the Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act, the agencies would work with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to develop appropriate respiratory protections — masks and other devices — tailored to the unique needs of wildland firefighters when smoke exposure exceeds exposure limits.

The lawmakers noted that wildland firefighters frequently work 16-hour shifts while traversing mountains, ash and debris — all while inhaling toxic smoke. They said there is a clear link between wildfire smoke and adverse health impacts, including multiple forms of cancer. Firefighters have a life expectancy that is around a decade shorter than that of the average adult due to lung damage.

“Firefighters are heroes, and it’s critical that we do everything possible to ensure they’re protected from the health risks associated with wildfires,” Sen. Adam Schiff said in a press release.

Joe Perez, a firefighter based out of Northern California, said he’s fought wildland fires like the Tubbs Fire in 2017 and others in the area.

“My whole career, I’ve worn a bandana or sometimes a facial shroud, which was standard practice,” he said. “But fires are burning thousands of homes, the contents of the homes and vehicles, and you’re sitting in that smoke for weeks at a time.”

Perez was on administrative leave for months in 2024 due to lung damage sustained in the years prior. A person he was dating at the time told him he needed to get checked out because she heard him wheezing, he said. “She could smell the burnt plastics and stuff coming out of my skin for days.”

He now lives with reactive airway disease, which resembles asthma, because of all the smoke he’s breathed.

Perez is part of a wildland firefighter respiratory protection working group with Cal/OSHA, and now fights fires while wearing a mask. He said additional protections could have reduced his exposure to dangerous smoke and chemicals, but the culture of firefighting would have made it tough to be the only one wearing a mask.

“Whether I would have worn it is another question,” Perez said. “That’s the kind of cultural question that’s difficult.”

Firefighters monitor a backfire as they battle the King Fire on September 17, 2014, in Fresh Pond, California.

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He thinks the aim of the legislation is a step in the right direction, but noted that while the agencies study the issue, firefighters will still have to deal with all the smoke without strong rules around masking.

“If I get cancer or something else down the line, I can pretty much point to where it’s probably coming from,” Perez said of the risks firefighters take in breathing in smoke while on a blaze. “But if we can avoid making that sacrifice, especially when we’re in our later years and supposed to be enjoying our retirement and having grandkids and stuff, that feels like something that makes a lot of sense.”

In the September rule change, the Forest Service acknowledged that masks and respirators can protect firefighters against the particles in wildfire smoke. They’re now allowed to use N95 respirators approved by federal workplace safety regulators.

Respirators remain banned during arduous work, like digging trenches, to prevent overheating. Officials note that while N95 respirators filter out particles, they don’t protect against gases, vapors or all tiny solid particles, with no respirators on the market that filter out all inhalation hazards while also complying with federal regulations.

Several firefighter associations, unions and organizations, including the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, endorse the bill.

“For too long, the physical health and well-being of these responders has been ignored by their own agencies,” said Lucas Mayfield, president of the group.

Mayfield added that “wildland firefighters’ lives literally depend on it.”