Advocates push to expand support for firefighters diagnosed with cancer in St. Paul firefighter's memory
A bipartisan bill that's cleared a key hurdle in the U.S. Senate would boost federal support for families of firefighters who died from cancer linked to their jobs.
The Public Safety Officers' Benefit Program provides death and education benefits to survivors of people who died from a heart attack, stroke or PTSD in the line of duty, and provides disability benefits to those who are seriously injured.
First responders who face illnesses due to exposure to toxins while responding to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack are also included.
The Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act would expand eligibility to include disabled firefighters due to cancer linked to their service and families who lost their loved ones to the disease.
More than 70% of line-of-duty deaths in fire service in 2023 are attributed to cancer, according to the International Association of Firefighters, a union.
Julie Paidar knows the risks that come with the job all too well. In 2020, she lost her husband, Mike, a captain with the St. Paul Fire Department, to an aggressive form of leukemia linked to his years of service as a firefighter and EMT.
The state formally recognized that his death was in the line of duty.
Paidar joined Sen. Amy Klobuchar, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, and firefighters in St. Paul on Friday to push for the bill's passage.
"Families that have stood by their firefighter — whether it was a career [firefighter] that answered their tones or they were volunteers and they were pulled out of their house during the middle of the night — the families love and support what their spouse does," Paidar said. "And so if we can get anything passed to help those families, that's why it's important to me."
The legislation has broad bipartisan support with 58 co-authors, and it advanced out of a key committee earlier this year. Klobuchar said it's on the table to be part of a larger national defense package that Congress is working on.
"The Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act is about recognizing that not all on-the-job injuries are immediately apparent," she said. "But it's also about honoring Mike's memory and every firefighter and their family should take solace knowing the hard job that they've taken on, that they're people that are going to be there for them."
Klobuchar said the bill would cover firefighters who have retired and ensure that they aren't excluded from getting assistance due to their illness, which she noted is a common problem.
"Those were some of the issues that a lot of people around the country have been dealing with, where they actually get cancer, but then they say, 'well, we don't know what it's from,'" she explained. "And we're able to make this a very broad definition because of what we've seen out in the field."