A new law signed by Governor Greg Abbott will ensure that firefighters and EMTs throughout Texas can receive worker's compensation if they get certain types of cancer due to their job. Steve Countryman was serving as a captain for the Tyler fire department in 2016. "I served just under 30 years with the Tyler fire department," said Countryman, a now retired firefighter. In 2016, he was also diagnosed with prostate cancer. "Firefighters are exposed to a lot of things, whether it's the heat, the smoke, the radiation," said Countryman. "There are carcinogens that we're around daily and it’s not just at the emergency scenes. Whether it's at the fire station and the exhaust from the fire trucks or our bunker gear." Countryman was one of 35 firefighters in Texas who filed for worker's compensation that year.