SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) – When crews go into a fire, they have respirators and oxygen tanks to help them breathe and protect their lungs. But it turns out there may be other risk factors for cancer in the clothes that firefighters wear.
Firefighters are not only exposed to flames, but they are also exposed to burning chemicals and burning chemicals when they head into those fires. And it used to be that they wouldn’t wash their gear as a sense of pride. But not anymore.
At a fire in the Mission District on Saturday and Sunday, we noticed crew members doing something odd after they put the blaze out — they were spraying each other down. That little action is a big change for the San Francisco Fire Department.
