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Fairmont FD first in state to achieve NIOSH ‘Gold Helmet’ status

FAIRMONT - Chief Brian Starn of the Fairmont Fire Department is doffing a gold helmet in the direction of his co-workers these days.

That's because the department he oversees just achieved Gold Helmet status from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health - for its participation in NIOSH's national cancer registry.

In fact, it's the first fire department in the state of West Virginia to receive the coveted helmet.

The recognition is nice, Starn said - but the registry is better.

"The Gold Helmet registry is keeping a lot of firefighters safe," said Starn, whose father, Brian, was Fairmont's fire chief for decades.

More than 50,000 firefighters, to date - from 165 departments across 32 U.S. states - have offered up their on-the-job medical histories to NIOSH since the registry was launched three years ago.

NIOSH, in turn, takes that data and translates it into station house statutes, as it were.

Screening programs. Training programs. Prevention programs.

Measures, Starn said, which will benefit firefighters today and later, when they hang up their helmets for good.

"Firefighting is pretty dangerous today," he said.

He isn't talking about the trauma of the flames. He's referring to the toxins that go airborne as a result.

"We use synthetics in everything," he said.

And firefighters have been especially busy this summer, battling as they are a spate of blazes across Canada and now into Nevada.

The pyro-maelstrom is consuming thousands of acres of forests and whole tracts of housing developments, paint stores, auto shops - all the places where flames and inventory can make a spark of the not-good kind.

And forget the soothing properties of a fireplace burning on a fall or winter evening, said Tim Nurkowicz, who directs West Virginia University's Center for Inhalation Technology.

Trees ablaze, he told The Dominion Post previously, are always going to generate elements unhealthy for inhaling, such as naturally occurring benzene and formaldehyde - which are always part of the high-Fahrenheit proceedings.

When you add those residences and commercial buildings, with their carpets, plastics and the like, you've got a lethal stew for long-term health damage, cancer and other calamities.

"Each house going up is a toxic disaster unto itself," he said.

While Fairmont FD now has a Gold Helmet first, it's also lonely at the top, said Capt. Dustin Lambert, who oversees training, safety and fire prevention programs for the department.

"I hope we encourage other departments across the state," the captain said. "It starts with reliable data."