When the fireman dies in the duties, a small team of federal health care workers often urge to determine exactly what went wrong, and determine how to avoid such accidents in the future.
That’s what happened after Two firefighters died In California in 2020, while looking for an elderly woman in a burning library. This happened in 2023 when A firefish fighter died In Merilend, after the floor, he fell apart in the burning house. And it happened last year in Georgia when Chief of the Battalion’s career died After a half -circle of the truck exploded.
But the Presidential Administration Donald Trump has taken measures from outside almost all employees of the Ministry of Health and Human Services responsible for holding these reviews.
At least two -thirds of the National Institute of Security and Health InstituteOn April 1, the HHS agency reported that they were fired or would be in June. These cuts included seven of the eight members of the Fighter Fighter Fighter Fighter Investigation Program, a team that studies the death of firefighters, one of the investigators said.
Most non -ninth niosh workers were provided by the end of the day to clear their desks. Dismissal were so cutting had to be pouredand Experimental mine used to check the protective transmission Under the Pittsburgh campus was under the guidance of the agency risks to trample and pollute the environment.
“It was pure chaos,” said another Niosh employee.
The death team team studied death in 20 fire units when reports of dismissal were received. Now these probes are unlikely to be completed, the investigator said.
“The whole intention of this program was that people would study through the tragedy – what happened to one person – so that we could prevent it with others,” the investigator said.
Administration moves also stop the first of its kind study of the causes of thousands of firefighters and violate the program that provides health ambulance staff who responded to the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.
Propublica talked to five NIOSH employees who have either introduced or contributed to the Firefields in the field of health care and received dismissal notifications. Most demanded anonymity for fear of retaliation from the administration.
“The existence of the Niosh-is the right of the residents of America to have a healthy and safe working situation,” said Micah Nemyer-Wolsh, Vice-President of the US Public Employees Federation of Local 3840, representing the agency staff. “This is an attack on NIOSH and federal staff, but it is also an attack on US workers.”
Neither the White House nor the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk, who called the shots on many abbreviations of the administration, responded to the request for comment. A NIOSH spokesman sent HHS questions.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy -Jellor. made some public signs These aspects of the World Mall program can be deprived, but the details remain rare. A press secretary of the department said in a statement that the programs needed by law – for example, some of those who focus on firefighters – will continue to act.
They did not answer the following question about how these programs will continue after stopping their employees.
“It breaks my heart”
Studies conducted by the Fire Fighter Investigation and Prevention Program begin at the request of the fire service affected by the victims. The resulting data is shared with the firefighter family in hope to ensure some closure. And Then reports are publishedThus, a broad fire fight community can strengthen its procedures to avoid such losses.
According to the investigator, the Trump administration has already prevented the program shortly after the inauguration, initially banning the investigative team from trips for research, communication with other agencies and reports. While the department eventually allowed to publish several reports on the victims, the rest remain unfinished.
“It breaks my heart that we are going to simply destroy these programs that have made great progress in defense of our firefighters’ health and security,” the investigator said.
In an investigator’s dismissal report, who received from HHS, he stated that the cessation of most of the agency’s staff “because your duties were recognized either unnecessary or practically identical to the duty performed elsewhere.”
“Leadership in HHS evaluates your service,” the report said.
Federal Fire force faced with a terrible year, With costs abolished the prescribed burns to reduce fuel vegetation and Termination of hundreds of employees of the fire support serviceEven in conditions that change for the climatic seasons.
“At a time when we need to strengthen these efforts and staff, it’s pretty damn wearing that we will try to reduce health benefits for our firefighters and first respondents,” said the Forest Service.
Demonrates the world’s largest study of firefighters
On April 1, the Trump administration also began to dismiss most of the staff working in the National River Fire Register.
Its creation in 2018 became a landmark victory in many years of struggle to study why firefighters suffer from certain types of cancer during Much higher rates than the total population. Both houses of Congress Unanimously adopted the bill To create a register. Trump signed it into the law during his first term.
While HHS said in a statement that the programs needed by the law would remain intact, he did not answer the question whether it would return the employees to keep the register.
Firefighters from wild soil usually do not wear respirators until they are high smoke. And protective firefighters wear when fighting active contains a high level of PFASOr “forever chemicals” that were associated with different types of cancer. But the exact reasons for some cancers that arise with high rates among the firefighters are not enough. Eg Only recently were associated with fire.
Signed more than 23,000 firefighters To participate with the register launched in April 2023.And recently the research team launched an information campaign to get up to 200,000 participants. On this occasion, NIOSH researchers planned to delve into many insufficiently studied issues, such as the effects on the workplaces to the cancer, which specifically harmed the women’s firefighters, said the propublica scientist who worked on the program.
Among the signed up thousands, there was a federal firefighter wild land that was concerned about spending a career breathed a fire without a respirator. The decision to throw out such studies is anxious, the fire propublica said. “I hoped that with all these studies something would happen that they would protect firefighters for wild places.”
With a fallen IT department, the registry portal for enrollment quickly came off offline.
“This is devastating,” said Judith Grabert, associate professor at the Rutgers public health school and co-chairman of the Council, who advises the research group. She said the study is “the biggest effort that, if – has been taken anywhere, to understand cancer in firefighters,” but it is an effort that could not simply be restarted after the researchers who have launched it fired.
Diana Kotter became an activist When her husband, a career fire, developed prostate cancer, and she fought for financing research such as the register. While she is a supporter Kennedy, Cotter said the administration has gone too far, reducing the program and other first respondent health initiatives, such as the World Trade Center program, which it called “sacred”.
“It is very important that we conduct a line in these studies,” she said.
