The St. George Fire Department is urging its members to take advantage of free cancer screenings available through Wednesday, using a device that can detect esophageal cancer in two minutes.
Firefighter Meg Kling said the occupational risks of the job extend beyond the fireground. “I can go into that building and it could collapse. I could go into the fire truck and we could get into a wreck, but they don’t always think about the prolonged effect of doing all these things and the biggest one is cancer,” Kling said.
St. George Firefighter Association President Jason Turner said cancer diagnoses are becoming more frequent — and are appearing in younger members of the department.
“We’re getting exposed to more and more chemicals, more toxins, more of everything now than we ever were and we’re finding it earlier and sooner with some of the younger firefighters,” Turner said.
One of those firefighters is Bryan Coppola, who has been with the department for three years and was recently diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer linked to the job.
Kling said the news is difficult for the department to process. “They’re your family and then to find out that you guys were in the same place at the same time and yet only one of you has cancer and the other doesn’t, it just guts you,” Kling said.
