Grant will allow researchers to study health effects of battling ‘The Beast’
Health effects of last May’s devastating Fort McMurray wildfire on thousands of fire crews will get more study thanks to a funding boost.
A two-year, $500,000 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grant announced Tuesday will help further investigate wildfire health effects on the estimated 3,500 first responders.
As the first wave of firefighters from Strathcona County returned to the Edmonton area from the Fort McMurray wildfire front lines, University of Alberta epidemiologist Nicole Cherry and her team met them to measure the toll heavy smoke and ash had taken on their respiratory system. In the weeks that followed, Cherry’s team set up at a dozen precincts around the province and used a mobile respiratory testing unit to test more than 350 firefighters.
“During the first few days it was clear that fighting that fire was very stressful, they weren’t getting any sleep, they were exhausted and often complained of breathing problems,” said Cherry in a release. “The firefighters from Fort McMurray itself were often seeing their homes and the homes of people they know burn down. It was a very stressful experience.”
Cherry’s study is one of seven — five led out of the U of A — being funded through a $3.4-million partnership between CIHR, the Government of Alberta and the Canadian Red Cross, as part of the federal government’s commitment to help in the long-term recovery of residents of Fort McMurray and the surrounding communities.
Unlike the earliest respiratory tests, the proposed study hopes to contact every Alberta-based firefighter who battled the blaze, including both the structural firefighters and the wildland firefighters employed by Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.
Cherry’s plan will include linking the personal health numbers of firefighters to Alberta administrative health records, for those who consent.
“We will be comparing with a cohort of people who were equally healthy before the fire who weren’t
During the first few days it was clear that fighting that fire was very stressful.
at the fire. Of the people who went to the fire, we want to know if they have any particular clusters of ill health that we didn’t see in comparison groups. Then, we’ll follow up every couple of years looking at mental health.”
Besides looking at health outcomes, Cherry said her group is interested in factors that may mitigate the effects, such as the type of masks firefighters were wearing and how long they were wearing them for.
“We are looking for the sort of things that could be changed at future fires,” she noted.
On mental health, Cherry said her team is looking at the support systems that were in place in the 50 or so forces throughout Alberta that sent people to the fire. “If one force seems to have something that is particularly good, we can recommend it to everybody else.”