Quincy City Council approves $2.6M to replace firefighter gear after "forever chemicals" detected

A standing room only crowd inside Quincy City Hall erupted in applause Monday night, after councilors voted unanimously to replace the entire fire department's gear to reduce exposure to cancer causing chemicals.

Last summer experts detected alarming amounts of PFAS, so called "forever chemicals," in firefighters' gear. Now, they finally know their days wearing it are numbered. 

Quincy neighbors, firefighters, and fire families showed up in full force - to underscore the everyday dangers of the work - and the invisible risks to which they're exposed in the gear they wear to stay alive. 

"We have firefighters on the job who are very sick right now, suffering from cancer," said Quincy Fire Chief Gary Smyth. "They're active members, they're young. I have a brother on the Braintree Fire Department who was diagnosed with glioblastoma." 

Purchasing the safer gear for the city's 271 firefighters will cost $2.6 million. City leaders voted it down last week 5-4 but said it was never a question of whether they'd pay for it, only how. City leaders had questions about the testing process, and how to know the new gear won't pose similar issues down the line. 

"We have $1.6 billion worth of debt. We're putting some safeguards in to say we'll pay this down as fast as we can. A city the size that we are, we shouldn't have to bond the gear. They should have been able to get it last fall," explained council president Anne Mahoney. 

Firefighters will continue to be fitted in the coming days and should be in their new gear within the next two months.