“These people are saving our lives, so we’ve got to save their lives,” said Lisa Moeller. 

Moeller is a retired physician assistant and board member of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology, an advocacy group based in Eugene that is aimed at promoting safe and ecological wildland firefighting and management.

She tracks research about wildfire smoke and firefighter health. And she notes that a majority of studies done thus far have been on male cohorts, not accounting for biological impacts on women.

Regardless of their gender, though, wildland firefighters are “camping next to where a fire is and inhaling smoke overnight, and then they’re working 15- to 16-hour days and then getting about six hours of sleep in an uncomfortable situation,” Moeller said.