Long before he became San Diego's fire chief, Brian Fennessy would wear his crusty, soot-covered helmet like a badge, proof he worked at one of the city's busiest fire stations. He thought it gave him credibility and earned him the respect of peers.
Now he knows his dirty gear harbored the toxins and carcinogens that haunt the scene of a fire -- and that they might well revisit him in the future as cancer.
"I figure that's what's going to get me," said Fennessy, who has been a firefighter since 1978. "When I worked for the Forest Service, man, we sprayed fuel breaks with chemicals that aren't even allowed anymore. We inhaled that stuff; we were exposed to all kinds of bad stuff.
"I figure it is just a matter of time before I'm diagnosed."