"Amid reports of rising suicides, researchers say there’s an urgent need to assess the risks facing an understudied population."
"As climate change fuels more severe wildfires that burn through larger swaths of forestland and homes each year, firefighters are facing increasingly unpredictable, catastrophic blazes, leading many to speak out about suicide among their ranks, an occupational hazard they once kept to themselves. But a dearth of studies investigating the psychological costs of battling these blazes is hindering efforts to provide firefighters with help.
Wildland firefighters routinely endure treacherous, emotionally taxing conditions. But those conditions have become increasingly untenable as fires grow bigger and fiercer, and keep men and women battling erratic blazes with no relief for weeks on end.
“The current federal wildland fire workforce is understaffed and overworked,” Riva Duncan, a retired U.S. Forest Service fire staff officer and executive secretary of the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, testified before the House Natural Resource Committee last April.
People are “at their breaking point,” Duncan said, “leaving a wake of mental health issues, suicides, high divorce rates and very concerning numbers surrounding high incidences of cancer and cardiovascular disease, all from a career of undocumented exposure to smoke, particulate matter and other effects from hazardous conditions we face every operational shift.”"
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