When George Esbensen points out — passionately — that firefighters run toward danger, he isn't talking solely about flames. The former Eden Prairie fire chief is on a mission to educate the public, lawmakers and employers about the often unspoken dangers firefighters face: high rates of cancer and heart disease, as well as mental health challenges due to regular appearances on the front line of tragedy.
Esbensen, who retired in 2018 after serving for 16 years as the city's first full-time fire chief, now devotes his energy to the Minnesota Firefighter Initiative, MnFIRE, a nonprofit advocacy organization he helped to found. He talks about its goals and how we can help those who help us.
Q: You created MnFIRE to address what you call an "escalating crisis." Please say more about that.
A: I'd been to many firefighters' funerals and my colleagues and I started noticing patterns. These men and women weren't falling through roofs. They were dying from incredibly high rates of cancer, suicide and cardiac issues.
Q: How high?
A: More than 68% of all firefighters will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Of the firefighters named on the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial Wall of Honor, 55% died from cancer, mostly cancers found in the digestive, respiratory and urinary systems. More than 12% of firefighters will develop heart disease, according to the International Association of Firefighters; cardiovascular disease is, by far, the leading cause of line-of-duty deaths. Research also suggests an association between the number of years of duty in the fire service and higher levels of suicidal ideation or action. Imagine if your vocation, day in and day out, was to serve people who are having their worst possible day. It's not normal.
Q: Why has it taken this long to get people's attention?
A: A big part of it is you have to take the macro view. Ninety-three percent of our state's 20,000 firefighters are non-career firefighters. They're insurance people, lawyers, salespeople, plumbers, electricians, schoolteachers, sometimes even police officers, too. They have spouses and partners, kids and financial stresses of regular human existence. They don't have a lot of extra time to advocate about this issue. Also, there is bias among policymakers to not kick over this issue because it's going to be very expensive to remedy. Minnesota ranks 44th in the nation in per capita fire service spending. That's not true of every community but, as a whole, we're not supporting firefighters in a way that is meaningful. You need to equip them for the battle and what happens afterward.
