VIDEO: Dan Morrow has been on the job as a firefighter with the city of Chandler for 19 years. He was burned while on a house fire in 2009.
“All the reflective tape was burned off my jacket, my SCBA mask was melted till where I couldn’t see anymore, my helmet was bubbled over, and my right glove was melted to my hand,” Morrow described the event.
A decade later, Morrow was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in the spot on his burned hand where the glove failed. He knew he would have to go through the workers’ compensation process that he’d heard from a fellow firefighter was not a simple one.
Although squamous cell carcinoma is not listed in Arizona’s statute for presumed occupational diseases, he firmly believes his cancer was caused by his work, specifically the night he was burned.