FALL RIVER, Mass. — As state fire officials claim the cancer epidemic is growing in their field, many are pointing to their very own gear as one of the gravest dangers they face every day.
Jason Burns, Executive Director of the Last Call Foundation and a member of the Fall River Fire Department, has made it his mission to keep firefighters safe and returning home to their families.
“Over 75% of line-of-duty deaths are related to cancer,” he told Boston 25. “So, we have to be pretty dramatic and aggressive with this.”
Burns has been helping fire departments across Massachusetts test their gear for PFAs — “forever chemicals” that have been linked to cancer.
He urges those departments to send samples of their gear to Professor Graham Peaslee of Notre Dame, who has uncovered startling levels of PFAs in the equipment.
Burns added, “It is regulated. It has to be under 100 parts per million. With my gear, it was sometimes between 400 and 500 thousand parts per million. It was saturated.”
Professor Peaslee told Boston 25 he’s been testing gear from dozens of departments across New England over the last year.
He claimed roughly 80% of the gear tested clean for PFAs, but 20% was manufactured with dangerously high levels of the chemicals.
One of the greatest examples, he said, was his work with the Quincy Fire Department.
Last summer, Q.F.D. sent gear to Peaselee, who tested it and called right back.
“Is this supposed to be PFA-free gear?” he remembered asking over the phone. “And he said, ‘Yes, of course.’ And I said, ‘Guess what? It isn’t.’”
This spring, the city of Quincy decided to replace its fire gear using a $2.6 million bond. Peaslee spoke in front of the council, outlining his findings and the dangers PFAs carry.
Burns added, “You’re either gonna pay to make sure you protect your firefighters, or you’re gonna pay because you didn’t protect them, right? So, cost shouldn’t be a factor. Let’s do our best, let’s protect them.”
One of his colleagues with Fall River Fire, Deputy Fire Chief Neil Furtado, has been battling cancer since last summer.
Through a union-sponsored screening program, Furtado’s doctors were able to detect what they believed were cancerous growths in his neck and upper chest.
Weeks later, after other tests, his doctor called Furtado and his wife.
“We were on speakerphone in traffic on the Mass Pike,” he remembered. “So, it was the most classic diagnosis you can get in Massachusetts, right?”
Furtado has worked on some of the city’s greatest tragedies since he joined the department in 2001.
His doctor told him his exposure to fire, heavy smoke, and dangerous toxins most certainly led to his extensive Thyroid Cancer diagnosis.
It’s unclear if PFAs also led to his cancer, but Furtado would not rule it out.
He added, “Like, that’s the stuff that’s protected us. We don’t need it to be hurting us.”
Furtado said he had no symptoms, but remembered his doctor saying, “‘When I looked at the thyroid...I thought I was coming to see a 97-year-old smoker.’”
He is still battling cancer while on a leave from his duties with the department.
Meanwhile, Burns is still working with other departments across New England to have their gear tested, and minimize controllable risks of the industry.
Massachusetts passed new legislation effective January of 2027 that bans manufacturers from selling any firefighter gear that has PFAs intentionally added into it in an effort to reduce cancer concerns.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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