Press Release: FUSEE Endorses Wildland Firefighter Health and Safety Act
Legislation would strengthen health protections, medical monitoring, and occupational safety for federal wildland firefighters
For Immediate Release: Thursday September 17, 2026
For more info: Timothy Ingalsbee, FUSEE Executive Director, fire@efn.org, 541-338-7671
Autumn Lukens, FUSEE Policy Assistant, autumn@fusee.org, 563-424-0296
Wildland Fire Crew on the Grasshopper Fire 2026. Credit: Kyle Trefny
EUGENE - Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE) today announced its support and endorsement of Representative Maxine Dexter’s (D-OR) Wildland Firefighter Health and Safety Act of 2026, legislation that would establish a comprehensive Federal Wildland Firefighter Health and Wellbeing Program to address the serious occupational health and safety risks faced by federal wildland firefighters.
Wildland firefighters face hazardous smoke and chemical exposures, extreme heat, physical strain, traumatic stress, and other occupational hazards. Many of the health consequences associated with this work can emerge years—or even decades—after firefighters have left the wildland fire workforce. The legislation recognizes that protecting wildland firefighters requires more than responding to injuries when they occur; it requires long-term prevention, monitoring, research, and access to appropriate medical care.
“There is a huge gap between the safety risks and health hazards that wildland firefighters face, including risk of severe musculoskeletal damage and rare cancers, and the inadequate level of medical care they are provided. The Wildland Firefighter Health and Safety Act will go a long way towards narrowing this gap in their health care, providing support for crews whose work-related injuries and illnesses often appear long after they've disengaged from the firelines,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, Executive Director of FUSEE: Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology.
FUSEE supports the legislation because it takes a comprehensive approach to firefighter health. Among other provisions, the bill would establish a federal health and wellbeing program focused on occupational exposures, respiratory hazards, cancer prevention, and early detection. It would also provide for baseline and annual medical examinations, cancer screenings, pulmonary function testing, exposure tracking, and medical surveillance.
The legislation would also address the conditions firefighters encounter on the firelines by advancing respiratory protection technologies, clean-cab protocols, exposure monitoring, and decontamination practices. It would provide paid duty time for firefighters to shower, clean contaminated gear, and decontaminate vehicles following exposure to smoke, ash, hazardous substances, and other contaminants.
“Wildland firefighters deserve to do what we love without shortening our life expectancy or sacrificing the possibility of retiring in good health and creating a family. This bill addresses many of the gaps we experience, including annual health screenings, better tracking of job-related health issues, improved workers’ compensation, respiratory protection, paid time to decontaminate, and more comprehensive mental health care. We deserve to feel as if our lives and livelihoods are not an expendable resource,” said Jesse Hamner, a federal firefighter based out of Utah.
A letter to members of Congress written by Jesse Hamner and signed by 21 fellow firefighters describes in graphic detail the many occupational health hazards they confront in the course of their duties.
Congresswoman Dexter, Congress’s only working pulmonologist with a long interest in protecting firefighters’ health, was lead author of the bipartisan House bill. The Senate issued their own bipartisan companion bill today, co-sponsored by Senators Padilla (D-CA), Merkley (D-OR), Sheehy (R-MT), and Curtis (R-UT).
FUSEE urges members of Congress to support and advance the Wildland Firefighter Health and Safety Act and recognizes this legislation as an important step towards ensuring that the health and wellbeing of wildland firefighters receive the same seriousness and sustained attention as the work they perform protecting communities, public lands, and one another.
For more info:
Autumn Lukens, FUSEE Policy Assistant, autumn@fusee.org, 563-424-0296
Timothy Ingalsbee, FUSEE Executive Director, fire@efn.org, 541-338-7671
Download the PDF of this press release: FUSEE Endorses Wildland Firefighter Health and Safety Act