As firefighters battled the catastrophic blazes in Los Angeles County in January, California’s U.S. senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, signed onto legislation with a simple aim: Provide federal assistance to first responders diagnosed with service-related cancer.
The Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act is considered crucial by its supporters, with climate change fueling an increase in wildfire frequency and firefighting deemed carcinogenic by the World Health Organization. Firefighters have a 14% higher chance of dying from cancer than the general population, according to a 2024 study, and the disease was responsible for 66% of career firefighter line-of-duty deaths from 2002 to 2019.
The Los Angeles wildfires brought the fear generated by these statistics into bold relief. As homes, businesses, and cars — and the products within them — were incinerated, gases, chemicals, asbestos, and other toxic pollutants were released into the air, often settling into soil and dust. First responders working at close range, often without adequate respiratory protection, were at higher risk of developing adverse health conditions.
Just days after the fires were contained, researchers tested a group of 20 firefighters who had come from Northern California to help battle the flames and found dangerously elevated levels of lead and mercury in their blood.
“Firefighters and first responders put their lives on the line without a second thought to protect California communities from the devastating Southern California fires,” Padilla said in a statement. “When they sacrifice their lives or face severe disabilities due to service-related cancers, we have a shared duty to help get their families back on their feet.”
But while the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act has bipartisan support, it still faces a rough road politically, and those who’ve spent years dealing with similar government-run programs warn of major implementation issues should the measure become law.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a similar bill in 2024, but the measure didn’t advance to a vote on the floor. And with legislators pondering potentially massive federal budget cuts, its fate in Congress this year is far from clear. What is clear is that, for legislation tying benefits to service-related health conditions, the devil is in the details.
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“Getting the piece of legislation passed is not as hard as guarding it,” said John Feal, who wa …