VIDEO: Firefighters who battled the October 2017 Tubbs Fire in Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties have tested at “troubling” levels for toxic exposure, according to a new study.
148 firefighters volunteered to be part of the study conducted by the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation. The results found the firefighters’ blood and urine samples showed elevated mercury levels as well as elevated levels of chemical compounds associated with firefighting foams.
Firefighters were tested three weeks after returning home from the Tubbs Fire, where firefighters on the front lines were exposed to toxic chemicals from some of the 5,600 structures that burned, more than half of them homes. Most of the firefighters had little or no protection from the toxic smoke.