A state commission has opened an investigation into the Houston Fire Department’s safety standards after the firefighters’ union accused the department of failing to protect its members from carcinogens to which they are routinely exposed.

Texas Commission on Fire Protection investigators will examine whether HFD complies with state laws requiring departments to clean protective clothing, called bunker gear, and maintain a standard operating procedure to do so.

“Houston firefighters are responding to multiple working fires a day and there is no mechanism that has been initiated to ensure firefighters do not have to wear contaminated bunker gear,” Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton wrote in a letter to the fire commission.

Six current and former Houston firefighters — four of whom are battling cancer — said the department’s gear cleaning procedures are inadequate and force members to repeatedly wear equipment that is contaminated. They say the fire department leadership has been reluctant to adopt new practices despite research establishing links between firefighting and cancer, and that City Hall repeatedly has refused to invest in firefighter safety.

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HFD Chief Sam Peña said the department has procedures to keep gear clean, but he acknowledged other deficiencies the department faces.

“I see the gaps,” he said. “I understand where we are in regards to just the big safety problems.”

A review of HFD policies along with those of Texas’ other large municipal departments indicates some of its safety procedures are less rigorous than those in Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso, as well as standards set by the National Fire Protection Association.

Compared to those Texas peers, the HFD, the largest municipal fire department in the state, lacks equipment to deep-clean gear at any of its fire stations and equips just one station with machines to capture poisonous diesel fumes from its firetrucks.

The department has sought and won four federal grants in the past five years for safety improvements, but firefighters say they are not enough to address all needs.

The firefighters union, which represents HFD’s 4,000 members, claims 28 firefighters between the ages of 32 and 60 have died since 2000 from cancers it says were caused by exposure to carcinogens on the job. The union estimates at least 10 active-duty firefighters have cancer, while three more have been medically discharged this year because they are too ill to continue.

Cancer risk

Since around 2010, studies have shown firefighters are at increased risk for some cancers and respiratory diseases because of the carcinogens they encounter responding to calls, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researcher Kenneth Fent said.

“A number of the compounds we’ve measured on turnout gear are also classified as Category 1 carcinogens by IARC,” he said, referring to the highest classification by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

While soot and debris are visible to the eye, microscopic particulates can be absorbed into a firefighter’s bunker gear and remain there unless the clothing is deep-cleaned in custom machines called gear extractors. Modern building materials, such as plastics and other synthetic compounds, create more hazardous conditions for firefighters than they faced in previous decades. Exposed to extreme heat, these materials can release such carcinogens as formaldehyde, benzene, arsenic and petroleum byproducts.

The Texas Commission on Fire Protection will examine whether HFD is following National Fire Protection Association Rule 1851, which Texas has adopted into law. That rule requires fire departments to properly care for and maintain bunker gear, perform a deep-cleaning at least once per year and maintain a standard operating procedure for firefighters to perform routine cleanings of their gear.

HFD sends each firefighter’s bunker gear once each year to be cleaned by a protective clothing manufacturer, Peña said. The firefighters said they believe this is inadequate and provides clean bunker gear only for a short period of time.

“Well, it’s clean and smells good and all that,” 25-year veteran Mark Herring said of the once-a-year cleaning. “But in those other 11 months throughout the year, we’re wearing dirty gear.”

Herring, 55, has renal cell carcinoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma he believes were caused by the job. He said although the fire service now understands that dirty gear — once a source of pride for firefighters — is a significant health risk, HFD lacks a written policy on how firefighters can clean gear themselves.

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Peña said gear cleaning is addressed in a number of HFD policies that comply with the 1851 rule, and the department is drafting a new policy that specifically addresses cleaning bunker gear. In addition to the once-annual cleaning, the chief said firefighters have a responsibility to continually inspect bunker gear. If it it becomes too dirty to simply rinse off, Peña said firefighters can request an additional deep-cleaning and wear borrowed gear in the interim. Herring said that works poorly in practice, adding that members of his station have struggled to borrow gear that fits correctly.

Compounding the problem of soiled gear, firefighters said, is that none of HFD’s 94 fire stations has extractors to deep-clean bunker gear more than once a year. The Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso fire departments each have several in-house gear extractors.

Scott Shaw, who was medically separated from HFD in June because of kidney cancer, said firefighters should have the opportunity to clean their gear each time it is soiled.

“If we had the chance to keep things clean on a regular basis, on our own, if we needed to, I think we would take advantage of that,” Shaw, 49, said.

Peña said HFD is in the process of purchasing a gear cleaner for Station 8, located across Louisiana Street from the department’s downtown headquarters, and hopes to purchase more in the future.

Exhaust fumes

The Houston firefighters also said HFD needlessly exposes them to diesel fumes. Diesel exhaust is considered a Category 1 carcinogen, and NFPA guidelines say departments should protect firefighters from exposure.

Every fire station in Austin, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio is equipped with a diesel exhaust capture system, spokespeople from those departments said. In those systems, hoses connect to the exhaust pipes of apparatus and transport fumes out of the station.

Peña said just one HFD station, Station 8, has a diesel exhaust capture system, which firefighters there said came online just two months ago. The chief said HFD plans to apply for grants that would allow the department to retrofit 10 to 15 stations per year.

In the meantime, firefighters who spoke with the Chronicle described station bays where workout equipment, ice machines and bunker gear in open lockers are exposed to diesel fumes, and where doors to living quarters are improperly sealed.

The union agreed in May 2017 to participate in a study about cancer in the fire service, which was proposed by researchers at the UT School of Public Health and MD Anderson Cancer Center. Peña said he and Mayor Sylvester Turner support the idea, and that city attorneys are negotiating an agreement with the doctors so research can begin.

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HFD has sought to address some of its safety needs by seeking grants from the federal government. FEMA gives around 2,500 grants totaling $310.5 million annually to fire departments and EMS services to improve safety standards. A FEMA spokesman said HFD has applied for eight grants in the past five years, and has been awarded four, totaling $9.8 million.

Firefighters who spoke with the Chronicle said the grants barely begin to address the substandard safety conditions they face. Peña touted $20 million in new HFD investment by the city in the past two years, but he agreed with the firefighters that a lack of support from previous mayoral administrations — especially in the department’s aging fleet — has created significant financial challenges.

The chief pledged to seek funds through grants, corporate gifts and donations through the Fire Fighters Foundation of Houston to try to address safety gaps HFD has identified but that cannot be addressed with the department’s current budget.

“It is going to take some time because we are so far behind in that investment,” Peña said.

zach.despart@chron.com