Two San Antonio firefighters spoke to an international crowd of cancer researchers about their experience and efforts to mitigate occupational cancer risks to local firefighters on Thursday during a convention hosted by UT Health San Antonio.
Firefighters face higher cancer incidence and mortality rates compared to the general population, and occupational cancer is the leading cause of line-of-duty deaths for the profession, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters.
In partnership with the San Antonio Fire Department and the University of Miami Sylvester’s Firefighter Cancer Initiative, UT Health San Antonio launched the San Antonio Firefighters Cancer Prevention Program in 2025. The program’s goal is to better understand and minimize cancer risk among local first responders.
Over 70 SAFD firefighters have been diagnosed with cancer in the past decade, including leukemia, myeloma as well as brain, thyroid, colon, prostate and testicle cancers, according to UT Health San Antonio.
SAFD was also one of the first fire departments in the world to launch a quartermaster program, which provides clean gear to firefighters whose protective gear has been contaminated, limiting exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. The department also maintains an occupational cancer committee.
Martin De La Rosa, an SAFD firefighter, EMT and quartermaster, and Stephen Torres, a captain with SAFD who has battled cancer several times, spoke to the researchers, who had gathered for the university’s fifth “Advancing Cancer for Latinos and All Populations” conference.
“You think of all the dangers and everything that we’re a part of, … but by far the number one killer is cancer, and that’s why I’m here,” De La Rosa said.
Firefighting cancer risk
Career firefighters are exposed to a litany of carcinogenic materials, from burning buildings to floodwaters, among other exposure points. De La Rosa presented photos of a firefighter covered in black, mud-like material from the interior of a burning building.
“He is covered in these elements of combustion,” De La Rosa said. “[The black material] is going to consist of the ceiling. It’s going to consist of the insulation … of the wiring, the plastics, the metals, all the chemicals that go into that if they had anything stored in those attics, and they have burned all those plastics and all those toxins. It’s all very carcinogenic.”
Fire departments, union associations and governments have worked to reduce exposure to carcinogens in the past few decades, by discontinuing protective gear lined with PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, and quartermaster programs.
The awareness around cancer risk has increased substantially since what Torres referred to as an “ignorance phase,” when firefighters simply weren’t aware of the occupational cancer risks, including himself.
Torres, who also has Lynch Syndrome, which raises his chances of certain cancers, was diagnosed with duodenal adenocarcinoma, a rare and often aggressive cancer in the duodenum, a section of the small intestine, at 39. He also had to have pre-cancerous polyps removed in 2012, and in 2014 he was diagnosed with bladder cancer.
“There was nothing that made me think that this was going to be occupational,” he said.
“We would dip our rags in kerosene, usually without gloves, and clean them of all the dirt [in the ‘90s],” De La Rosa added. “And then we would use hydraulic fluid or motor oil to polish them up and make them look nice. We don’t do that anymore.”
“We’ve come a long way with our treatment and care and protecting younger generations of firefighters,” Torres added. “Now we know what the hazards are. It’s just convincing ourselves that it can happen to us and we need to protect ourselves.”
On top of the exposure risk, firefighters work demanding 24-hour shifts, De La Rosa pointed out. Disrupted sleep patterns from shift work has also been associated with higher risks of developing cancer.
De La Rosa told the researchers that fire departments could benefit from a deeper understanding of firefighters’ exposure to cancer, and how to decrease that risk further.
“A lot of people have always commented to me that, ‘It’s so sad, but your funerals are so beautiful,'” De La Rosa said. “We have a lot of practice at making the funerals so memorable. I’ve been to too many funerals throughout my career, and I would hope that the next generation would not have to be known for their amazing funerals.”
