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ST. PAUL – Moorhead Fire Chief Jeff Wallin is supporting a bill from Senator Amy Klobuchar that would better help support the families of fallen first responders.
Wallin says the issue of service-related cancers hits close to him for his departments. “A Lieutenant who died as a result of his cancer, and an assistant Fire Chief who fought and recovered from a life-altering bout of cancer, both of which were attributed to the same industrial fire with toxic chemicals that had occurred years earlier.”
Wallin says firefighters have a 9% higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14% higher risk of dying from cancer than the general population and cancer is found to have caused 66% of career firefighter line-of-duty deaths from 2002 to 2019.
The “Honoring Our Fallen Heroes” bill would expand federal support for the families of first responders who have died or been permanently disabled because of service-related cancer.
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