A firefighter with the British Columbia Wildfire Service uses a hose to douse a hotspot, while battling a wildfire near Vanderhoof, in July, 2023. Most wildland firefighters don’t wear a mask, whereas structural firefighters wear self-contained breathing apparatuses.JESSE WINTER/Reuters
A leading standard-setting organization has begun efforts to develop a universal kit of personal protective equipment for Canada’s wildland firefighters.
CSA Group, a not-for-profit body formerly known as the Canadian Standards Association, is establishing a committee this spring to draw up new standards for the specialized clothing, gloves, goggles, footwear and masks worn by wildland firefighters. Its work is scheduled to begin this summer, with publication of the standards expected in early 2028.
Candace Sellar, the CSA’s manager of strategic initiatives for health and safety, said most existing firefighting standards are directed at municipal fire department members, also known as structural firefighters. As for wildland firefighters, their equipment varies widely from province to province. This complicates efforts by provincial and federal agencies to work together, which is becoming increasingly necessary as wildfire seasons grow longer and as fire behaviour becomes more extreme amid a warming climate.
Notably, most wildland firefighters don’t wear a mask, whereas structural firefighters have long donned self-contained breathing apparatuses. British Columbia and Ontario recently began offering different mask models to their wildland firefighters, highlighting the lack of consensus.
Canada’s wildland fire agencies want better masks. If only it were that easy
“If you happen to have a structural team arrive at the same time as a wildland team at a wildland urban interface fire, you’re going to see the urban guys and ladies head to toe in PPE,” Ms. Sellar said.
“And then you’re going to see the wildland folks that are dealing with the best they have in the moment. There’s quite a divide.”
The CSA’s initiative follows on the National Framework on Cancers Linked to Firefighting Act, passed in 2023. It compelled the federal health minister to develop a framework to improve firefighters’ access to cancer treatment and prevention. The initiative includes more research into prevention of cancers linked to firefighting.
Health Canada agreed to provide up to $450,000 over three years to fund the CSA committee’s work. Lori Murphy, a spokesperson for Health Canada, said the initiative “is intended to help reduce occupational exposures to hazards and support evidence-informed decisions related to equipment, training, and operations.”
According to Health Canada, each province and territory enforces its own rules on protective equipment. These are often based on standards developed by bodies like the CSA. Others include the Standards Council of Canada and the U.S.-based National Fire Protection Association. Ms. Sellar said the CSA hopes the new standards will be formally adopted by labour regulators across the country.
“If that happens, then it’ll naturally get picked up by the rest of the organizations downstream.”
However, she added that standards can still be influential if they are adopted only by employers, unions or trade associations.
Existing CSA committees typically have between 25 and 30 members. The CSA is seeking members drawn from wildland firefighting agencies, labour unions, equipment manufacturers, training providers and government regulators.
“We’ve had a ton of interest,” Ms. Sellar said.
Nicolas Smit, a former executive director of the American Mask Manufacturers Association (now known as the American Medical Manufacturers Association), has advocated for the adoption of elastomeric respirators (which include a facepiece and exchangeable cartridges or filters) for wildland firefighting across North America for several years. He said the CSA has a rare ability to convene diverse stakeholders and experts together to solve problems, and its standards are already widely used.
“If you go to a workplace where you might you have potential for eye injury, you have to wear CSA-approved eyeglasses,” he said. “If you’re going to a site where you require a hard hat, you need a CSA hard hat.
“So the CSA has quite a bit of power, and it’s been very beneficial.”
Previous attempts to draw up standards for wildland firefighting equipment in other jurisdictions have run up against numerous challenges. One oft-cited example is a standard called NFPA 1984: Introduced in 2011, it spelled out requirements for respiratory protection for wildland firefighting. But no equipment was ever manufactured to meet those requirements.
Wildland firefighter Katie Devaney carries an axe and hose as she works to extinguish hot spots remaining from a controlled burn in August, 2021.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Jonathan Szalajda, a former deputy director of the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (part of the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), has long been involved in standard-setting. He said NFPA 1984’s fate illustrates the difficulty of quantifying and addressing hazards associated with fighting fires in areas where developed land meets natural landscapes and people live alongside vegetation.
“It’s a lot more challenging” than simply protecting against wildfire smoke, he said, “because you have a whole variety of synthetic materials that might be burning in a structure … it’s impossible to test every chemical, gas or vapour that could be identified.”
Ms. Sellar confirmed the new committee will consider fires in areas like these.
“We’re seeing more and more conflagration events that don’t just nicely stick to the brush line.”
Mr. Szalajda said every jurisdiction he’s aware of, from the United States to Europe to Australia, that has attempted to draw up standards for wildland firefighter breathing protection have faced the same daunting obstacles – everything from technology issues such as battery life and charging to deciding in what circumstances masks must be worn to overcoming resistance from the wildland firefighting profession.
“Everybody is struggling with this,” he said.
“I think there’s a way to get there, but it’s probably going to be an evolutionary process.”
Editor’s note: The lead photo and caption in a previous version of this article were incorrect. They have been replaced.