Aside from rushing into burning buildings to save people and property, Tony Carlton, Mike Harding and Roger Goddard have one thing in common – they all have mesothelioma, a terminal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.
They are among scores of firefighters who have developed the disease in the past decade – at least 16 times more than have lost their lives fighting fires.
There are no official national statistics for mesothelioma deaths among firefighters, as only a person’s last profession before they retire is listed on their death certificate – and few firefighters remain until retirement because of the strenuous nature of the job.
However, five of the top personal injury law firms have had around 100 cases since 2016. In the same period six died in the line of duty.
‘I knowingly put my safety in danger when I volunteered for the fire service,’ says Tony, 85. ‘But to have unknowingly been exposed to something that has put a ticking clock on my life is unforgivable. Nobody ever warned us about the dangers of asbestos.’
When you listen to former firefighters like Tony, the story is often the same.
‘I was a fire investigator for a while – it’s a bit like being an archaeologist, looking for clues to what caused the fire, sifting through debris, and I did it without breathing apparatus or a face mask,’ says 74-year-old Mike. ‘Nobody ever told us to watch out for asbestos because it was dangerous.’
And Roger, 76, says: ‘After fires were put out, it was normal practice to pull down the ceilings with a hook to make sure that there were no “hot spots” in the roof above. When the ceilings fell down, there would be a lot more dust and debris around me, and some of it was asbestos. I would be covered head to toe in it.
Mike Harding, 74, a former fire investigator, says: ‘Nobody ever told us to watch out for asbestos because it was dangerous’
Mike spent 30 years working in several fire stations in London, finishing in 2009 as a Station Officer in Whitechapel
Mike says he and other firefighters regularly cleaned away hazardous debris after a fire without wearing masks
‘There were asbestos ceiling tiles, asbestos doors, asbestos pipes, asbestos boards, asbestos corrugated sheets and asbestos cement. And I was never warned about it.’
What these three brave men also share is a concern for firefighters today, because it is still common practice for them to sift through debris after fires without wearing breathing apparatus or personal protection equipment (PPE) that is supposed to keep them safe.
Furthermore, a survey of more than 10,600 firefighters in 2019 and 2020 found serious shortcomings in the way PPE was cleaned of toxic chemicals and asbestos after fires.
In the survey, conducted by scientists from the University of Central Lancashire in conjunction with the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), 45 per cent of respondents said dirty and clean PPE was not stored separately, 57 per cent said they stored their fire gloves inside other items of PPE such as helmets, boots and pockets – and one fifth said their gloves were never cleaned.
And while the FBU has launched a decontamination campaign, with the recommendation that firefighters should ‘shower within an hour’ of returning from a blaze – to remove dangerous toxins and fibres from their hair and bodies – experts say that in some regions as many as 40 per cent of them have no access to suitable shower facilities.
‘This means they could be going home still contaminated with cancer-causing materials and exposing their families to danger,’ says Adam Taylor, the FBU’s national officer heading up health and safety.
‘The sad thing is that this has been going on for decades, so we have no idea how many firefighters will have been exposed to asbestos fibres, and how many will become ill in the decades to come.’
This is significant because there is a latency period of anywhere between 20 and 60 years from exposure to asbestos and symptoms of mesothelioma developing. The disease affects the mesothelium, the membrane on the outside of the lungs, heart, intestines and abdomen, and can cause tumours in or around any of these.
Roger Goddard, from Fleet, Hampshire, says he was exposed to asbestos at the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service from 1972 to 2002, when he retired
Like Mike, Roger says it was common for firefighters to work without masks and inhale toxic fumes
It can be slowed with chemotherapy and immunotherapy, but there is no cure. After diagnosis, most victims die within a year.
The Daily Mail’s Asbestos: Britain’s Hidden Killer campaign is demanding that the government initiates a phased removal of the material from all public buildings, starting with schools and hospitals. More than 80 per cent of schools contain it, and 90 per cent of hospitals.
Additionally, we are calling for the establishment of a national digital asbestos register to record where the material is and what condition it is in, something firefighters say would be invaluable to them when they are answering 999 calls to burning buildings.
‘To know what we’re heading into would make us a lot safer,’ says Adam. ‘It would mean we could be better prepared and act accordingly.’
The demands in our campaign echo recommendations made following an inquiry by the Parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee in 2022. This committee monitors the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which oversees asbestos regulations, but the recommendations were rejected by the government and the HSE.
In the same year, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer Working Group concluded that exposure to toxins, gases, particulates and fumes released during fires made firefighting ‘carcinogenic to humans’.
Drawing on worldwide research it found firefighters were at increased risk from a whole host of cancers. In particular, they were more than twice as likely to develop mesothelioma than the general public.
Firefighters are coming under increasing pressure as a result of stringent budget cuts since 2008, with their numbers having been slashed by 25 per cent – or 11,000 – in England alone.
The National Fire Chiefs Council supports the call for a national digital asbestos register and says young firefighters are now given asbestos awareness training
Almost £1billion in capital spending has been cut over the past ten years, leaving many of the country’s 3,000 fire stations ‘falling apart’, according to the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), which represents the heads of fire services across the UK.
Mike, who has a son and two grandchildren, lives near Bromley, south London. During a 30-year career, he worked at several fire stations in London, finishing in 2009 as a Station Officer in Whitechapel. Among several awards, he received the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct in 1981. He says: ‘When you’d go in a fire you’d be wearing breathing apparatus, so you’d have the correct equipment.
‘But the problem with asbestos fibres is they’d find their way into your tunic, and in my day we had woollen tunics so the fibres would get stuck in them.
‘You could be called to something like a hospital and go down in the basement, and there’d be asbestos there. When you saw it, you had to send a message saying “asbestos reported” and then appropriate action would be taken – but by then, you’ve already been exposed.
‘There’s no advanced warning. If it was a building with chemicals inside, a hazardous material code is posted on the outside, so you get some pre-warning. But with asbestos there’s nothing. That is why your digital asbestos register would be so useful.’
In common with Tony and Roger, Mike would be asked to clear up debris in the aftermath of fires, further risking exposure to the deadly material. Also in common with them, he had no asbestos awareness training.
‘When I was doing fire investigation, we would sift through the debris to see if we could find the cause,’ he says. ‘And in those days, fire investigation officers had no breathing apparatus, no face masks, to do that aspect of the job, and some people got exposed. I guess I was one of the unlucky ones.’
Mike’s first symptoms appeared in May 2024 while walking in Madeira. He suffered breathlessness and when he came home had to have fluid drained from his lungs. Fluid build-up is a common symptom of mesothelioma.
He was diagnosed with the disease some time later and, thanks to his lawyers at Thompsons solicitors, was given compensation by London Fire Brigade and a commitment to fund private immunotherapy treatment.
‘What worries me is that firefighters are still damping down fires and clearing debris without using respirators,’ he says. ‘I recently saw a senior officer from Essex fire service being interviewed on TV about a big fire, and in the background were two firefighters damping down in the remnants of the blaze. Neither was wearing even a mask.
‘I see it all the time, and it worries me. It’s still happening almost 20 years after I retired… I can’t understand why they’re still doing it.’
From 1969 to 1979, Tony Carlton worked as a planning manager by day, and as a paid volunteer firefighter in Kent in the evening.
He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2017 and given just six months to live, but receiving private cutting-edge treatment negotiated by Thompsons as part of a compensation settlement with Kent County Council, he has confounded doctors by surviving so long.
‘I worked at two rural fire stations in Kent and so attended lots of fires in farm buildings, and many of them had corrugated asbestos roofs,’ he says. ‘But we had no protective gear and nobody ever warned us that asbestos was dangerous. My training certainly didn’t include anything relating to asbestos.’
After being diagnosed, Tony says he felt he had been let down by a fire service which failed to warn him of the dangers of asbestos – which were known at the time he was a volunteer – or to provide him and his colleagues with adequate PPE, something he found ‘unforgivable’.
Thompsons is the FBU’s solicitor and so most firefighters are referred to them when they are diagnosed with mesothelioma. Tony’s solicitor, Amanda Jones, says the firm has dealt with at least 82 cases since 2016.
Four other top personal injury firms, Leigh Day, Irwin Mitchell, Hodge Jones & Allen, and the Asbestos Law Partnership have dealt with at least 14 more.
‘After decades representing families devastated by asbestos diseases, we have seen the human cost of inaction far too often,’ says Amanda. ‘The Department for Work and Pensions Committee has already set out a clear roadmap for safer asbestos management – creating a central digital register, phasing out asbestos from non-domestic buildings, and increasing inspections and enforcement. We renew the call for these recommendations to be followed.’
Roger, from Fleet, Hampshire, says he was exposed to asbestos at the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service from 1972 to 2002, when he retired.
‘When I first arrived at the scene of a fire with my colleagues, we would go in and ensure all of the people were out of the building,’ he recalls. ‘Unless the fire was particularly severe, we would attempt to put it out with the hose reel and we didn’t use breathing apparatus. There would be lots of heat, smoke, debris, particles and dust in the air and I would just breathe in the smoke and particles.
‘If we complained about the smoke, we were made to feel like cissies and my senior officer would have smacked me around the head.’
Even though there was less knowledge of the dangers from asbestos and other cancer-causing chemicals in fires during the period, the cavalier attitude to risk among fire and rescue services was staggering.
‘There were usually only two to three breathing apparatus sets on each engine,’ says Roger.
‘Therefore, if more firemen were required to enter the building on fire, there weren’t enough sets for all of us. The firemen who weren’t wearing the apparatus would breathe in the smoke, particles and debris, including asbestos.’
Roger was diagnosed with mesothelioma in June 2024. He says he is fearful for his future and the financial wellbeing of his wife, Angela, their three sons and five grandchildren.
His lawyer, Harminder Bains of Leigh Day, is representing him in his legal case against Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service for compensation.
‘I feel bitter about the lack of instruction, guidance and safeguarding from above,’ says Roger. Selflessly, he adds: ‘But the best thing I ever did was join the fire brigade.
‘If speaking out helps to keep young firefighters safer than we were, then I’ll happily do it. I don’t want what happened to me to happen to them.’
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) supports the call for a national digital asbestos register and says that young firefighters are now given asbestos awareness training.
Since the 2019/2020 PPE survey it says it has been taking action to improve safety – not least, by calling on the government to spend money on updating crumbling fire stations.
‘Our firefighters risk their lives every day to protect the public,’ says Phil Garrigan, NFCC chair. ‘They face danger head on because lives depend on it. What we must not accept are the hidden risks that follow them off the incident ground – the toxic exposures that threaten their health long after the fire is out.
‘The commitment firefighters show in protecting their communities must be matched by our commitment to protecting them in their workplaces.’
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says that while it sets the regulatory framework that promotes best practice, the provision and use of PPE are the responsibility of individual fire and rescue services.
A spokesman said: ‘The safety of our dedicated firefighters who risk their own lives to keep others safe is absolutely paramount.
‘That is why fire and rescue services must comply with legal obligations to control asbestos exposure and contamination and make sure anyone coming into contact with asbestos is properly trained.’
Whether the Ministry’s fractured and hands-off approach is working is debatable. Professor Kevin Bampton, chief executive of the British Occupational Hygiene Society, which campaigns for workplace safety, says it isn’t.
‘It would save many millions of pounds and hundreds of thousands of lives if we confronted asbestos as a national issue, had a national policy and a national plan,’ he says.
‘Firefighters face the highest risk of exposure to asbestos of almost any public servants. But the protections deemed essential for all other workers knowingly facing asbestos are largely absent.
‘The poor management of asbestos risks for firefighters – who put their lives on the line for us – is a national disgrace.’