In 1999, three firefighters started to make a list of colleagues with cancer. Today, that list has 600 names on it, and it's growing

Shelley Page, The Ottawa Citizen

The hunt to locate Ontario firefighters who have cancer began with a handwritten list on the back of a cocktail napkin. Back in 1999, in a Holiday Inn lounge in Mississauga, three firefighters were relaxing after a union meeting. One of the group, firefighter Paul Atkinson from Scarborough, mentioned how many of his colleagues were dying of cancer. The other men agreed that they, too, knew many sick or dead firefighters.

They began scrawling names on a napkin until there was no room left.

A young firefighter with brain cancer in Scarborough. Another two men, near retirement, in Ottawa. Three cases of lymphoma in Toronto. Firefighters dead of colon cancer from London. Many of the firefighters were newly retired, others weren't yet 40.

Something was terribly wrong, they thought.

"It was beginning to dawn on us that maybe we were killing ourselves and we didn't even know it," recalls Capt. Barry Quinn, one of the three firefighters and now vice-president of the Ottawa Professional Firefighters Association. He, too, provided names of Ottawa-area men he knew were sick or dying of cancer.

Six years later, that cocktail napkin has grown into a database containing the names of 600 Ontario firefighters -- most of them now dead.

"And that is not all of us, not by far," says Mr. Atkinson, the occupational disease expert with the Ontario Professional Firefighters Association, and the man who -- along with Hamilton firefighter Colin Grieve -- tracked down most of the firefighters.

There is a belief among firefighters that since the large-scale inclusion of plastics and polyvinyl chloride in the construction of buildings and automobiles, the smoke from fires is more dangerous.

Not only does the firefighters association want to paint a clear picture of the health of Ontario's firefighters, it also wants to make sure that firefighters with job-related diseases receive proper compensation from the Ontario Workers Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).

Compensation could include anything from health benefits, to a survivor's pension, to support for minor children, to funeral expenses. And, more importantly for some, it would also bring recognition that the firefighters got sick doing their jobs.

Every week, the firefighters-turned-investigators dig up more names of sick or dying comrades.

Last month, Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Grieve were in Ottawa to visit two dying firefighters. Patrick Thibodeau, 41, has end-stage brain cancer. Mark Johnston, 43, is in the last weeks of his battle with colon cancer. Both men worked together at the Nepean fire department before its 2001 amalgamation with the Ottawa fire department.

While the investigative team was in Ottawa, they also learned the names of four more dead Ottawa firefighters, two of whom had been on active duty when they fell ill from cancer. They will add these men to their investigation.

There is no requirement for sick firefighters or their families to notify their union about their illnesses. That means many firefighters have died without realizing that there may be a link between their cancer and their jobs. If they died due to job-related illness, their families might be eligible for some form of financial support.

The firefighters association is trying to win recognition and compensation for the men and their families. They have so far submitted 150 claims to the Workers Safety and Insurance Board. The vast majority have been rejected.

Convincing the insurance board -- and the Ontario government -- to acknowledge that firefighters are at greater risk for many cancers and therefore deserve compensation, has been challenging. Science linking occupational chemical exposure to illness is still in its infancy. Only through large epidemiological studies -- tracking thousands of firefighters through their careers -- have researchers been able to state, as those from Johns Hopkins Medical Center did last summer, that firefighters are at a higher risk for virtually all cancers.

But it's been difficult to get recognition or compensation, even when it seems obvious that a fire, or a lifetime of firefighting, is the cause. When eight men died after working at the scene of a 1987 fire at a Kitchener horticultural plant, union officials hoped that, because the cancers occurred so quickly after the blaze, the dead men's families would be compensated. In fact, that has not happened.

Last week, 19 years after the fire, the firefighters association was in hearings with the Workers Safety and Insurance Board, still fighting for compensation for three dead firefighters from that blaze.

On March 6, 1987, the Kitchener Fire Department responded to the multiple-alarm fire at Horticultural Technologies Inc. that drew firefighters from across the city. The fire progressed through the night into the next morning. Sixty-nine firefighters, half of Kitchener's force, either battled the blaze or cleaned up the mess.

The firefighters had no idea what was burning, but reported the smoke and flame was "every colour of the rainbow." They learned later that the plant manufactured "Oasis Floral Foam," a hard foam-like substance used to hold floral arrangements in place and keep them moist.

The green dye used in the foam caused a number of the firefighters to take on a green tinge as they were working. Capt. Ed Stahley went to the emergency department because he had turned a greenish colour.

"The joke was he looked like Kermit the Frog," recalls Peter McGough, a Kitchener union official who was part of the cleanup team on that fire.

It didn't take long before the men who attended the fire started to die. In May 1989, Dave Ferrede, age 32, went on sick leave and was subsequently diagnosed with primary liver cancer. He was dead a month later.

Then Capt. Stahley was diagnosed with primary liver cancer. He died in July 1990 at age 54.

During the summer of 1989, Sgt. Lloyd MacKillop of the Waterloo Regional Police Service, who had been the supervising police officer at the fire, developed cancer. He died in May 1990 at age 48.

Firefighter John Divo, who was also the local union president, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in his lungs and spine. He died in April 1990 at age 46.

Around the same time, firefighter Henry Lecreux was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He died in February 1993 at age 52. Parkinson's disease has been linked to chronic exposure to a number of chemicals. The following spring, William Misselbrook -- who was the day-shift platoon chief at the fire -- died of liver cancer. He was 64.

Several other firefighters who attended the blaze have skin cancers, prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease and many other health problems. Mr. McGough says that 23 of the 69 firefighters called to the blaze have either cancer or Parkinson's disease.

The firefighters association submitted claims on behalf of five of the dead men, and several other sick with cancer, but the vast majority were turned down. One man with melanoma, one with prostate cancer, and several with Parkinson's disease have all received some form of compensation.

But, last week, Mr. McGough was still fighting for compensation for the families of Mr. Ferrede, Capt. Stahley and Mr. Divo.

"It seems like I've been fighting for these guys for most of my life," says Mr. McGough.

The firefighters association has also recently appealed a decision to deny compensation to a fire captain who died following the 1997 Plastimet recycling plant fire in Hamilton.

An industrial fire broke out in Hamilton at a dilapidated waterfront warehouse that was occupied by the plastics recycling company, Plastimet. About 400 tonnes of derelict auto parts, left behind by a scrap-metal firm and polyurethane foam, began burning. About 225 firefighters struggled to control the blaze for the next four days. The air was thick with toxins -- benzene, vinyl chloride, dioxin -- yet the firefighters responded as though it were a routine fire. They were not wearing hazardous materials suits. In many cases, they fought the blaze without their breathing apparatus.

In the following weeks, nearly 100 Hamilton firefighters began complaining of infected eyes, skin rashes, and respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders.

After the Plastimet fire, many claims were made on behalf of firefighters who fought the blaze and many were approved, including a case in which the person lost the lining of his nose and throat.

But the firefighters association is still fighting for many of the sick firefighters nine years later. The problem, says Mr. Atkinson, is that most claims won't be approved unless the firefighter has had 20 years on the job. He thinks the latency period is too long, especially when Kitchener proved one horrible fire can do damage instead of just a lifetime on the job.

In 2004, Capt. Bob Shaw from Hamilton died of cancer of the esophagus.

He was a "fitness freak," the epitome of health, but had never felt well after working at the Plastimet fire. His claim was recently turned down and an appeal is being submitted on behalf of his family.

Colin Grieve, one of the investigators for the Ontario firefighters association, worked with Capt. Shaw at Plastimet.

"Their arguments for that denial were weak and feeble. They claimed his death had nothing to do with Plastimet and nothing to do with his career as a firefighter."

Meanwhile, the association's medical expert concluded that Capt. Shaw either died because of Plastimet, or the fire made his health -- already bad as a result of 26 years of firefighting -- worse. "We're running with Bob because we believe his case will be the strongest. He was the most physically fit, and lived a really healthy lifestyle," says Mr. Grieve.

About 350 firefighters who fought the Plastimet fire are participating in a 25-year study on the effects of the exposure. Some serious gastro-intestinal, respiratory and other health problems have already shown up in those who battled the fire.

While the Kitchener horticultural plant fire and the Hamilton Plastimet fire were notably huge and toxic fires that firefighters' ill health could be traced back to, other firefighters' illnesses remain a mystery.

As Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Grieve travel across the province, they have attempted to link clusters of cancer to certain fires in certain cities. While there is a cluster of cancers among firefighters who used to work for the Nepean fire department -- before amalgamation -- no large fire has been pinpointed as the cause.

Mr. Grieve describes being in Windsor recently interviewing sick firefighters. "One guy walked in and we asked him to show us on a map if he'd fought any awful fires. He pointed up to a corner to where a chemical fire had been. The second one comes in, tells us the same thing. Then the third one comes in. Same thing. And fourth guy tells us, "Yeah, I was there.' "

But Mr. Grieve says he has learned that each firefighter reacts differently to chemical exposure. "Some guys have one shot and two years later they are toast. Some just don't get sick throughout their careers."

Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Grieve say that the number of cancers they find among firefighters is increasing weekly, sometimes three or four at a time. They say they will not rest until they track down the name of every sick firefighter and make sure that if they died because of their job, they are recognized properly.

"Every funeral we are at, someone comes up to give us one or two more names," Mr. Quinn says. "Your kids think you are a hero, but you get human in a real hurry."