I wrote this letter last month and wondered when a good time was to publish it. I believe this is the right time. We have recently had two groups of our FF's, wifes and families attend 2 ceremonies for the fallen. One was in Ottawa for the Canadian Fallen FF's Memorial and the IAFF Fallen FF's Memorial in Colorado Springs. This letter reflects how much cancer effects each and every one of us. To the Retired Members of Local 18, Recently Chief Karen Fry has done several interviews as she was moving into retirement. Which is good for the Department, I cannot recall anytime during my career that a retiring Chief has had any interest from the press. During these interviews such topics as women as FF’s, call volume, hazardous calls, new fire hall that she would have liked to have approved by City council. The one thing that caught my attention was cancer. Chief Fry when she was asked about cancer, she replied that just talking about cancer could make her cry. She acknowledged that during her time as Chief that she had 4 fire fighters die from cancer while they were still on the job. I understand in a general interview that time restraints do not allow the interviewee and interviewer to get into detail on anyone topic. However, Chief Frys acknowledgement does not emphasis the impact of cancer has on Fire Fighters lives to the public. We already know ourselves that there is a plague of cancer on FF’s I think to make a bigger impact too the public we would be better off to mention the real numbers and not just include the working FFs. The group that gets most forgotten is the retirees. Do not get me wrong I am glad Chief Fry mentioned the cancer deaths. While she does mention the number of FF’s that are currently working that are dealing with cancer. But there is way more of us that are dealing with cancer or dealt with cancer let alone passed away from. While I cannot give you the numbers of our retirees that have cancer or have dealt with cancer as most of us are quiet about having cancer. A rough guess would be 30 retirees that are currently dealing with cancer those are the ones that I have talked to I can tell you that as of 2011 – 2025 the Line of Duty Deaths Vancouver Fire Fighters that are recognized by the BCPFFA is 40, all those are retired but 4. This does not include those FFs that have had their claims rejected as not being on the presumptive cancer list or those that choose not to file a claim or the claims that could be rejected because of late filing. (once the cancer is discovered you have 1 year to make a claim) “Workers' compensation claim data suggests that cancer is a main cause of occupational mortality among firefighters. The BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit determined that nearly 85% of work-related fatality claims of firefighters in Canada were cancer-related between 2007 and 2021 (AlHajj et al. 2024). Similarly, the International Association of Fire Fighters reported that 94% of line-of-duty deaths among Canadian IAFF member career firefighters were cancer-related (IAFF, 2024). It should be noted that these statistics are based on workers' compensation claims and therefore reflect the legislated presumptions of occupational disease recognition for cancers and firefighters across Canada. Currently, there is no comprehensive national data on firefighter cancer.” This quote is from the Federal Government – National Framework on Cancer Linked to Firefighting In conclusion we owe it to those that have had or are dealing with and that have passed away from cancer to let the public and politicians know what cancer is doing to FFs and their families, it does take a toll on families Respectfully Submitted John Hudson President of the Vancouver FF Retirees Association