LODD: Job-related brain cancer (Washington State law)

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Monday, January 17, 2005

South Sound ©2004 The Olympian

 

 

Firefighter death line-of-duty  

State law links cancer to work-related exposure

OLYMPIA -- When Mark Noble started fighting fires 25 years ago, he hardly ever wore a breathing filter.  

When the 47-year-old Olympia firefighter died Saturday night of brain cancer, his death was considered a line-of-duty death, the result of long-term exposure to toxic chemicals on the job.

It's the second time in the state a firefighter's death has been ruled job-related because of exposure to carcinogens.  

It's also the first death in the line of duty for the Olympia Fire Department, which has been a department for 146 years.  

Noble's fellow firefighters mourned him at the firehouse Sunday, where his death was a reminder of the dangers of new building materials and old firefighting habits.  

"Because of the nature of what products are made of, like plastics and synthetic carpet, what burns in a house fire today, in 2005, is much different from 1905, when you had 100 percent wood smoke," said fire Capt. Kate McDonald.  

Firefighting safety precautions didn't keep up with that change in air quality, Noble's peers recalled.  

Olympia firefighter Ken Morefield started out on the McLane Fire Department with Noble in the 1970s, when there weren't enough breathing filters to go around.  

"We had two air packs for everyone on the whole department, and we didn't use 'em," Morefield said. "If we did, we'd take 'em off as soon as we could. As soon as we could see, we'd take 'em off. We'd choke a little, but we'd tough it out.  

"It's totally different now," Morefield said.  

Still, seeing what happened to his friend has made Morefield and others in the department think about their health and the future.  

And that's what Noble spent his last years working to achieve. After his diagnosis in May 2002, he began promoting precautions against breathing toxins, even appearing in a safety video that will be distributed to firefighters nationwide.  

"This is a good educational, obviously painful reminder that what we do today may affect our health in 20 years," McDonald said. "That's what Mark wanted, was for us to be aware and take extra precautions for safety on the fire ground.  

"We don't go to a car fire now, even though it's outside, without putting our air packs on. That's a change from 15 years ago," McDonald said.  

Although standards for wearing breathing filters were changing before Noble's diagnosis, he worked hard to reinforce the rules for firefighters loath to wear the equipment when they didn't see the need.  

He also revolutionized the way the Olympia Fire Department runs its garage. Now no one backs a fire truck in without a hose to the exhaust pipe and the proper evacuation system, according to McDonald; diesel fuel combustion is highly carcinogenic, she said.  

"This may be one more piece of evidence that educates us and saves lives," McDonald said.  

For the firefighters, especially those who merged with Olympia from McLane, Noble is more than an example to learn from.  

Another McLane Fire Department transfer, Jason Loffler, was with Noble when he died Saturday.  

"My wife and I had stopped by to see how they were doing and sensed his time was getting short," Loffler said. "His house was full of family and friends."  

Loffler, 34, remembers Noble as a mentor.  

"I came in as a 19-year-old know-nothing, and he trained me," Loffler said. "He was a very aggressive firefighter. He was a very intelligent guy and very fun-loving. He was an instigator of pranks around the firehouse."  

Noble was an avid photographer, specializing in large-format black-and-white prints, and was influenced by Ansel Adams. He took the fire department's group portrait, which hangs in the lobby.  

For Christmas, he sent everyone, all 70-odd members of the department, a new print he finally had the energy to take -- of a craggy tree in his back yard.  

"He said he'd been looking at it for a long time now, and the lighting was just right," Morefield recalled.  

Noble used to work for Morefield, a contractor, building houses when both were volunteer firefighters in McLane.  

Noble also built his own house.  

"We were going through pictures at his house the other day and found pictures of us putting the foundation together before his kids were born," Morefield recalled. "We've been friends a long time."  

Noble is survived by his wife, Rebecca, and his sons, Shane and Luke. Both are students at The Evergreen State College.  

The firefighter stopped working the day he was diagnosed with cancer and has been fighting it -- with a few surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy and experimental drug therapy -- until a week or two ago, his colleagues said.  

"Most critically, it gave him time with his sons," McDonald said. "I think that was most critically important for him."  

Noble's wife remembers him as a great husband and a great dad.  

"He loved his boys. They were the most important for him," Rebecca Noble said. "Being a firefighter, he got a lot of down time. He got to be the main parent and got to take them to a lot of soccer games and field trips."  

In addition to photography and building, Noble had a flair for cooking, his wife said. He spent quiet time at the firehouse watching the cooking channel on TV.  

"He was a great salmon barbecuer," Rebecca Noble said. "He was an exceptional cook, and he loved to eat."  

He also loved his colleagues at the fire department, she said.  

"It's an incredible family," Noble said. "During Mark's illness, the Olympia Fire Department has rallied around him and done incredible things for Mark and his family."  

That's why he wanted to make sure they took care of themselves after he learned of the risks associated with smoke and the exhaust in the fire department garage.  

"He was always very aware of safety issues," Noble said. "This was such a hidden killer."  

For him, she said, "his awareness came too late."  

Plans are under way for services later this week.