Op-Ed: Don't just cheer wildland firefighters as heroes. Give them affordable healthcare (via latimesopinion)
throughout the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, where crews are already being dispatched. This summer, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, our nation’s wildland firefighters will be asked to expose their lungs and immune systems to grueling days working in fire, smoke and soot to protect public lands.
Banging on cans and cheering firefighters as heroes is a poor substitute for what they should clearly earn — year-round healthcare coverage. The federal government has promised full coverage to wildland firefighters who contract COVID-19 while dispatched to a fire in federal jurisdiction. Veteran firefighters will tell you that determining liability on a forest fire is fraught with complications burdened with layers of bureaucracy. Minor injuries go unreported. Firefighters say they are often encouraged to “rub some dirt on it,” to avoid triggering an administrative investigation.
The healthcare landscape for those employed as contractors on the hundreds of private for-profit fire crews is even worse. Despite working primarily on state or federal land and absorbing the same risks as government crews, there is no federal code mandating coverage for temporary seasonal contract firefighters.
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