SAN ANTONIO – They risk their lives for us in more ways than one.
In 2018, KSAT began reporting on the firefighter-cancer connection. In the seven years since, there have been extensive changes to firefighting protocols at the San Antonio Fire Department.
SAFD Lt. Isaac Alvarado has experienced those changes firsthand.
Twenty-three years ago, Alvarado began serving the fire department in several capacities: fighting fires, driving trucks, working EMS and in the Fusion command center.
About seven years ago, Alvarado said he had to slow down.
“May of 2018 was when I was diagnosed, and it was a gut punch when it happened,” Alvarado said. “I have multiple myeloma, which is a blood cancer. It’s fairly common in firefighters.”
Since then, Alvarado has received some form of chemotherapy.
“I take a pill every night, and I do infusions, too,” Alvarado said. “Because of my type of cancer, it’s going to be for the rest of my life. Mine’s not one that they can give me a, ‘You’re in remission’ kind of thing.”
Firefighters are at a 9% higher risk of getting cancer than the general population. They are also 14% more likely to die from cancer.
What kept Alvarado grounded, he said, was being able to keep his job while going through treatment.
“You don’t have to leave the fire department just because you have cancer,” Alvarado said. “The department was gracious enough to move me down to headquarters. Now, I work in tech services.”
Alvarado said he wanted other firefighters diagnosed with cancer to know they can transition to other roles within the department.
“When the protocol started, we were doing a lot of rinsing off on the scenes, making sure the gear was clean on the scene before we put it back in the trucks,” Alvarado said.
SAFD has taken its cancer-prevention initiative even further by adding an entire department: the Quartermaster team.
“Where we’re actually swapping the gear out, they don’t have to sit in their dirty bunker gear,” said SAFD Quartermaster Thaddeus Anwar.
Each firefighter has two sets of personal gear. When a call comes in, Anwar and his team bring clean gear to the scene for firefighters to take with them.
The team then takes the dirty gear back with them to be cleaned.
“These are our new extractors,” Anwar said.
He showed KSAT giant metal washing machines.
“This is what’s needed for the type of gear that we’re washing. Can’t just throw it in the regular washing machine,” Anwar said. “Then we have heater units, (which) kind of accelerates the drying process. We could also hang up the gear so it’s a natural drying.”
Each day is different, but Anwar said he has done seven loads in a day before.
Once the gear is dry, it’s folded and put into bags labeled with every firefighter’s name and badge number.
The back room of the building is filled floor to ceiling with rows and rows of those bags. They also have loaner gear in case a firefighter works two fires in a day and both of their sets of gear are dirty.
The department said this is a proven method. The goal is to find more methods that can make similar impacts.
“If we can do research into, maybe, a different type of gear or something else that we wear that can be a barrier between the chemicals and our skin,” Alvarado said. “That would be huge.”
Alvarado said he wants a healthier future for his fellow firefighters.
“I’m one of the guys that can help with this in the future,” Alvarado said.
Alvarado said he is thrilled about a new partnership between SAFD, UT Health San Antonio’s Mays Cancer Center and the University of Miami.
These entities are working on extensive research on the connection between fighting fires and cancer diagnoses.
“Well, it’s my family,” Alvarado said. “You do anything for your family.”
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