DALLAS—Dallas Fire Rescue will begin using an audio recording created by a firefighter who died last year to educate members of the department on the dangers of occupational cancer.
In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control released a study saying firefighters had a greater number of cancer diagnoses and cancer-related deaths.
It also found that firefighters are at an increased risk of certain types of cancer due to occupational exposure.
Since the mid-2000s, Dallas Fire has seen 31 workers’ compensation cases filed by active firefighters citing occupational cancer.
The Dallas Fire Fighters Association says that at least 58 retirees have reported having some issue with cancer, and six active members have died.
In July of 2017, 58-year-old Grant Dalton lost his battle with esophageal cancer. Dalton was diagnosed in January of 2015 and spent 21 years with Dallas Fire Rescue.
The DFFA and the City of Dallas classified Dalton’s death as occupational cancer.
His wife Michelle says she still lives with the sting of his death.
“To tie that to a job-related injury—was just shocking to the whole family,” she said. “It was devastating.”
“Usually when a firefighter signs on to the department, they don’t think about the risks of getting cancer,” she said.
Just a month before Dalton died, Michelle used her phone to record her husband’s story.
The recording, which is over nine minutes long, was taken while Dalton was going through a chemo treatment.
In it, Dalton stresses cancer dangers after a fire is put out when firefighters are searching and removing burned debris from a scene.
The process is one of the final stages of fighting a fire and is called overhaul. Oftentimes, firefighters don’t wear masks during this process according to a DFFA spokesperson.
“In overhaul, we didn’t wear our masks,” you hear a frail Dalton say. “Everything is just burned up, and you’re scooping it.”
He continues saying, “All of this stuff is just floating around. It’s sitting in your throat—and you swallow it down.”
“It goes on and on throughout your career—wherever you may work.”
Dalton even acknowledges that he didn’t realize the possible carcinogens and toxins he was inhaling until it was too late.
“I never thought about it until about a month and a half ago,” you hear him say.
Michelle says that it’s difficult to hear the recording but was happy to read a text message from DFR Chief David Coatney that it would be used for awareness training.
“I don’t want to just save one family. I want to save hundreds of families—from walking down the path that we walked through,” Dalton said.
There are no written protocols about wearing SCBA masks during cleanup stages at Dallas Fire.
But WFAA is told that will change when the department adopts new cancer prevention policies in the coming weeks.