[projekktor id=’20673′]

Firefighters face risks every day, not only in the actual fire battle, but also in the smoke they breathe in. The St. Catharines fire department has introduced new safety procedures to help reduce the risk of cancer. The department has been working with the Ministry of Labour for the last year on these new safety procedures.

They start right on the fire scene and the goal is to minimize firefighters exposure to cancer causing carcinogens. Right on the scene, firefighters in St. Catharines will now strip down, removing all their protective gear and put it in a double bag. They wear masks so they don’t breathe in anything harmful and also wear rubber gloves and safety glasses. Back at the station, their gear is washed in special machines in a negative pressure room.

The new protocol is to decontaminate all the equipment used on the fire scene. Once the crew comes back and their gear is decontaminated under these new safety procedures they also have to make sure that they truck is completely clean.

The goal is to make things safer, especially with high cancer rates among firefighters. Last year St. Catharines lost their fire chief, Mark Mehlenbacher to cancer.