‘I’ve got two young kids and I want to see them grow up’
Up to a dozen firefighters who fought the Grenfell Tower blaze have been diagnosed with terminal cancer, reports claim.
The emergency workers, some aged only in their 40s, are suffering with rare cancers linked to the high levels of unprecedented exposure to contaminants during the rescue effort at the 24-storey tower in 2017, the Mirror reported. Up to a dozen have been diagnosed with cancers, the majority understood to be digestive cancers and leukaemia, for which there is no cure.
A list of sick firefighters who attended the fire is being put together by experts, who are said to have found a dozen cases so far, but that could end up exceeding 20. With some cancers taking up to 25 years to appear, the revelation this week is feared to only be the tip of the iceberg.
A fire service source told the publication: “We are expecting some really depressing data to be revealed soon. It’s shocking.”
The Grenfell fire, on 14 June, burned for 60 hours and claimed 72 lives in what is one of the worst disasters in UK’s modern history. Victims included six members of the Choucair family and five of the Hashim family. The youngest victim was six-month-old baby Leena Belkadi, while the oldest victim is believed to be 84-year-old Sheila Smith.
Strokes, heart disease and kidney failure are also understood to have been recorded among attending firefighters – possibly due to the physical toll their bodies took during the effort.
Some of the 1,300 firefighters thought to have attended the scene were left in their contaminated suits for more than 10 hours while others were in a smoke-filled basement for up to six.
Analysis carried out on the debris found there were heightened concentrations of chemicals that cause cancer and proven carcinogens within 200 metres of the tower, the paper said.
Responders were also seen outside the tower in the days after the fire without protective kit, with some experts fearing toxins could have been even worse for people in the wake of the blaze.
Research this week found firefighters are twice as likely to end up being diagnosed with cancer if they find soot in their nose or throat, and the same rate applies to those who stay in their often contaminated kit for more than four hours after a fire.
Riccardo la Torre, Fire Brigades Union national official, said the research proves firefighters are “suffering and dying from cancer, strokes, heart disease, and mental ill health as a result of going to work and protecting the public”.
'You'd struggle to find a firefighter who hasn't directly or indirectly been impacted by cancer at work'.
Despite this, the government and bosses said the data wasn't there to act.
So firefighters took it into our own hands, and now we've got the proof. It's time for change.
pic.twitter.com/lCQOaR6oCl
— Fire Brigades Union (@fbunational) January 13, 2023
“We now know that firefighters are exposed to health and life-threatening contaminants as a result of their occupation, and certainly would have been at an incident the size and scale of the Grenfell Tower Fire.
“However, firefighters are left in the dark due to the lack of regular health surveillance and proper monitoring of exposures in the UK. “Due to this inaction by the government and fire bosses, the Fire Brigades Union is commissioning further research to help us demand proper protection and support for our members who attended Grenfell, and for firefighters all over the UK.”
David Badillo, the first firefighter who went in, told the Mirror that the findings are “very worrying. I’ve got two young kids and I want to see them grow up”.
“I’ve been scanned and nothing’s come up, thankfully, so far, but you don’t know what could happen in the future.”
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