By Dr. Margaret Gavian, Medical Director, MnFIRE Stress, and particularly traumatic stress, is an occupational hazard of being a firefighter. All first responders have a particularly high exposure rate to traumatic stress inducing incidents. Doing chest compressions on an unconscious child, working to free a mother trapped in her vehicle after a collision, being with...Read More

There is a crisis in our fire service – more and more Minnesota firefighters are tragically losing their lives due to cancer, cardiac and emotional trauma issues. Sadly, this crisis doesn’t seem to be coming to an end anytime soon – and with COVID-19, we can only expect it to get worse. Beyond the virus...Read More

Firefighters experience higher rates of certain types of diagnoses and cancer-related deaths compared to the general U.S. population, according to a multi-year study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than 68% of firefighters will develop some form of cancer in their lifetimes. The rate of line-of-duty deaths from cancer-related illness is...Read More

Cardiovascular disease is the number-one killer of firefighters nationwide and is by far the leading cause of line-of-duty deaths in the fire service. According to the International Association of Firefighters, more than 12 percent of all firefighters will develop heart disease at some point in their lives. Even young and healthy firefighters suffer from hardened...Read More