The Hazmat Firefighter: What we dont know or understand is hurting us!
- Ben Bosley
- Mar 2
- 7 min read
Safety or the Illusion of Safety?
The Meter Guys – Saving Our Selves (SOS) Series
🔥 Safety or the Illusion of Safety?
In the fire service, we have to ask ourselves an uncomfortable question:
Are we truly being safe—or just practicing the illusion of safety?
If we’re honest, many of us are chasing the illusion. When I was developing a hazmat class for firefighters, I took a hard look at my own experience. Like many in the fire service, I’ve lost friends, mentors, and brothers and sisters to cancer. That reality forced me to dig deeper.
What I Expected vs. What I Found
Over the past two years, I set out to separate fact from myth—expecting to confirm what I’d always believed and maybe debunk a few misconceptions. What I found instead changed everything.The truth is, we don’t really know what we’re exposing ourselves to, or how those exposures are affecting us long-term. The fire service has built a culture of safety around ideas that sound good—but don’t always hold up to science. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
“It’s not what you don’t know for certain that will hurt you. It’s what you’re absolutely sure of—that just ain’t so.”
For decades, we’ve been absolutely sure that using SCBA and monitoring for carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide were the cornerstones of safety. We believed that if we controlled those two gases, we’d make our firegrounds healthier and safer. But the truth is—that just ain’t so.
The Real Problem: What We’re Not Measuring
Through the development of the Saving Our Selves (SOS) class, I discovered something far more important than CO or HCN: chemical solubility. Solubility—the ability of a chemical to dissolve in water or fatty tissue — is at the heart of what’s hurting us. And since the early 1980s, even with SCBA on every rig, firefighter cancer rates continue to climb. So I asked myself:
If we’re wearing our air packs and taking care of ourselves, why is cancer still rising?
If respiratory exposure were the main issue, we’d expect to see lung diseases—lung cancer, mesothelioma, emphysema—as our leading killers. But when you compare firefighters to the general population, lung disease rates are about the same.The cancers that are skyrocketing aren’t lung-related—they’re systemic and often linked to dermal absorption. That means it’s not just what we breathe — it’s what soaks into our skin.
Formaldehyde: The Chemical We Ignore
Let’s talk about one chemical that shows up in every structure fire, formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a known human carcinogen. In industrial settings, workers are allowed to be exposed to an average of less than 0.1 parts per million (ppm) over an eight-hour shift. The TWA for this is 0.016 ppm / ceiling is 0.1 ppm.
How to visualize that: imagine a room filled with one million ping pong balls. Only one-tenth of one ball could be formaldehyde before it’s considered unsafe to breathe. Now consider this: formaldehyde is created in every house fire. It comes from burning plastics, carpets, adhesives, insulation—basically everything in a modern structure. And yet, not a single fire department in the U.S. routinely monitors for it. Compare that to the chemicals we do monitor:
Hydrogen Cyanide – 10 ppm
Carbon Monoxide – 50 ppm
We’ve been chasing CO and HCN—when formaldehyde is hundreds of times more toxic at much lower concentrations.... and dermally soluble!
A Firefighter’s Breakdown (3:00 AM Logic)
Let’s break this down firefighter-style:
CHEMICAL: FORMALDEHYDE
• Molecular Weight: 30 — it hangs around with us. Doesn’t rise or sink much. We call it a “dancer.” Air weighs 29 for reference
• Solubility: Miscible — loves water. Humans are about 70% water. So when a chemical loves water, it loves us.
• Ionization Potential (10.88 eV): Too high for most PIDs (photoionization detectors). Your PID can’t see it—just like it can’t see CO or HCN.
• Flammability: Ignites at around 7% (70,000 ppm). It’s technically flammable, but long before that, it will harm you through toxicity. So formaldehyde is toxic, invisible, and persistent.
It’s not just our lungs we should be worried about—it’s our skin. And our turnout gear? It’s not vapor-tight. That means the most toxic gas in a house fire is literally soaking into us. Externally and internally if we are not wearing our SCBA.
What we can do different!
Once we grasp that we all have been practicing "Fire Culture", we can understand that it has not all been rooted in science! Science can help us on the fire ground, understand hazards as they REALLY are.
Using our simple 4 gas meter is not a bad place to start, but we need to understand those readings. Our 4 gas meters are smarter than we give them credit for. We know most meters have a CO sensor, and for good reason, its one of the calls we run the most, so make sure we use them on the fireground! If you have a HCN sensor, of course those readings are good to have! What about your oxygen sensor, this is your toxic sensor! This sensor can detect ANY gas that is present in a environment, down to a concentration of 5000 ppm! Using this information, if your oxygen sensor moves, there are chemicals you are exposing yourself to, and your meter is not even in alarm! (Author note: Read article on meters by Scott Russell for the math)
Using a PID to QUALIFY not QUANTIFY presence of chemicals in the environment. This technology has been around for awhile, but using it in the overhaul stage can see ALL chemicals that have a IP less than 10.6 EV ( Typical Bulb strength is 10.6 EV, though other exist). Though, as was stated above about Formaldehyde, its IP being 10.88 you may not be able to see that chemical, but you can see a family of gases that have a lower IP!
Qualifying if chemicals are present such as PCH's, and other toxics that you may not have a sensor for, can determine the level of toxicity within the post fire environment. We understand that this number will more than likely never be zero, but if we can eliminate higher concentrations in the air, its less that we can absorb through our skin, and if you still are not wearing your SCBA.... less to breath in (PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK)
Ventilation, I feel is a lost art on the fire ground. You may remember when you started your basic fire training, there was a emphasis on ventilation of a structure. Starting with positive pressure, and negative pressure (old folks ventilation). Vertical ventilation, and as you went through, hydraulic and vertical venting. I would ask you, to think back to your last fire and ask...
How many fans did you see running, and for how long?
Using your meters in conjunction with ventilation and TIME, might be one of the best practices we can do to limit our exposures. The Meter Guys will be conducting LIVE fire exercises to evaluate the use of this tactic to put real numbers to the field - STAY TUNED!
Finally, we need our folks to use REHAB! Rehab, is not a dirty word, nor is it punitive or for the weak! After exiting a structure, removing your gear and "airing it out", is one of the most important steps along with wiping down you can do to stop toxic absorption at the scene. Using this time to hydrate, and gross decontaminate your skin, using non-alcohol based soaps, decreases your skin absorption!
This rehab time can be used in conjunction with command calling for ventilation of the structure, making sure no one is "missing out" on "their" fire!
Remember, you are the MVP of your incident!
M - Meters V - Vent P - PID = YOU and REHAB
Every Fire Is a Hazmat Incident
Let’s be honest—no one wants to be a “Safety Sam.” We all want to make the grab, push interior, and fight hard. But understanding what’s really in that smoke doesn’t make you soft, it makes you smart.
The reality is simple: every structure fire is a hazmat event. We’re not discouraging aggressive firefighting. We’re encouraging informed firefighting. Knowing your enemy doesn’t make you timid—it makes you tactical by knowing your enemy.
A Mission Worth Fighting For
The Meter Guys’ SOS Class was built to give firefighters real-world knowledge about chemical properties, monitoring, and exposure risk, without the fluff. We want firefighters to understand that what we’ve called “best practices” may actually be creating an illusion of safety.
It’s time to start practicing real safety—based on facts, not assumptions. Because at the end of the day, our mission is simple: “Live to build your grandkids a treehouse.”
About the SOS Class
The Saving Our Selves (SOS) program is designed for any department as a 2–3 hour evening training that covers:
• The hidden chemistry of fireground hazards
• How monitoring tools really work
• Why solubility and skin absorption matter
-It pairs perfectly with our "When Meters Matter" class our 8hr or 4hr Express version course for a full, hands-on learning experience.
Reach out to The Meter Guys to find out "you dont know what you don’t know"—and "Why Meters Matter". Because in this job, knowledge isn’t just power—it’s survival.
Authors note:
This topic is not only pertinent to the fire service but a passion that was forged in loss over 25 years ago. On May 5th 2001, my uncle Raymond Bosley died in the line of duty from exposure to toxic gases to include benzene, from emergency responses. This endeavor has been a passion of mine to explain how and why what we are doing is not working. The United States cancer rate is climbing to over 70% of LODD within the numbers counted by the IAFF, which is unacceptable to me. Our gear and protective equipment is better than it ever has been, yet we are dying at a higher rate. It is my belief, that our training, tactics, and understanding is failing us. This is my mission, my passion...and as i see it MY DUTY.
"I am not here for me, I am here for we, and we are here for them"
Ben Bosley
Master Instructor – The Meter Guys
“Because the illusion of safety isn’t enough.”
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