Wildland firefighters put their lives on the line to contain fires and save communities, infrastructure and ecosystems. But if they develop life-threatening illnesses associated with smoke exposure, many aren’t eligible for the same presumptive compensation available to their urban colleagues.
Kim Leblanc is the widow of Thomas Leblanc, a former wildland firefighter who died from cancer in 2010. She fought for almost 10 years to get Ontario's workers' compensation system to recognize that his illness was caused by 35 years of wildfire exposure.
Leblanc applied to Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board for compensation but was rejected. Thomas Leblanc died at the age of 54 in August 2010, roughly a year after he was first diagnosed. He asked his wife to keep fighting the WSIB claim.Tom Leblanc, right, is pictured in a 1996 family photo. Leblanc fought wildfires for 35 years before being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2009. He died a year later.
Her husband's WSIB documents, which fill three thick binders, lay out how he was often exposed to burning treated lumber, such as railway ties, which are associated with the release of harmful chemicals. The 61-year-old has since developed two illnesses that would have been covered as presumptive conditions in many jurisdictions if he were a structural firefighter. In 2019, he lost a kidney to cancer, and in July he suffered a heart attack and needed double bypass surgery.
There is a wealth of accepted research supporting presumed links between certain cancers and cardiovascular illnesses and urban firefighting, but that hasn't been automatic for wildland firefighters, he said. "We have increasing evidence that absorption of carcinogens across the skin is one of the major routes of exposure," Guidotti said. Wildfire fighters can go days and weeks without being able to shower the soot from their skin.He said the rules concerning coverage have started changing in some places to include wildland firefighters.
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