{"id":243,"date":"2026-05-27T15:49:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/?p=243"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:11:28","slug":"hannah-dreier-of-the-new-york-times-on-wildland-firefighters-and-the-deadly-smoke-risks-they-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/hannah-dreier-of-the-new-york-times-on-wildland-firefighters-and-the-deadly-smoke-risks-they-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Hannah Dreier of the New York Times on wildland firefighters and the deadly smoke risks they face"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"sharing\">\n<div class=\"social-icons\">\n<div class=\"simplesocialbuttons simplesocial-round-icon simplesocialbuttons_inline simplesocialbuttons-align-right simplesocialbuttons-inline-no-animation\">The New York Times investigation that led to major legislation compensating wildfire fighters who had worked for years in toxic smoke and developed cancer and other debilitating illnesses began with a reporter\u2019s observation: They weren\u2019t wearing masks.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>That led Hannah Dreier down a monthslong reporting journey as she conducted more than 400 interviews, made public records requests to eight government agencies, analyzed thousands of pages of medical and service records and created a database of every national wildfire fighting crew deployment over two decades.<\/p>\n<p>Following the publication of Dreier\u2019s series, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/series\/exposed-and-expendable\">Exposed and Expendable<\/a>,\u201d Congress passed legislation requiring the government pay <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/12\/19\/us\/wildfire-fighters-cancer.html\">$450,000<\/a>, tax-free, to federal wildland firefighters who become disabled or die from smoke-related cancers. The U.S. Forest Service also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/09\/09\/us\/wildfires-masks-firefighters.html\">began providing masks<\/a> to firefighters battling large fires.<\/p>\n<p>For her reporting and impact, Dreier was <a href=\"https:\/\/shorensteincenter.org\/article\/hannah-dreier-and-the-staff-of-the-new-york-times-win-the-2026-goldsmith-prize-for-investigative-reporting\/\">awarded<\/a> the 2026 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting from the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, where The Journalist\u2019s Resource is housed.<\/p>\n<p>I recently spoke with Dreier for an hourlong, behind-the-scenes look at how this investigation came together. Watch the full video below and keep reading for five tips pulled from our conversation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-99e9d0b0 alignfull uagb-is-root-container\">\n<div class=\"uagb-container-inner-blocks-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IRa5BtIWxKA?si=FmrJNPn4Q7a1-zZd\" width=\"560\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1. Simple questions can lead to big stories<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n<p>Back in the Times newsroom following maternity leave, Dreier noticed maskless firefighters on TV news coverage of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, despite official health guidance recommending that the public use masks or respirators.<\/p>\n<p>Her question? Why.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought that it might be worth looking into,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy that was \u2014 why are firefighters out there with no protection? And what might the health risks be?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dreier expected a quick answer. Then she learned that Canada, Australia and Greece give wildfire fighters respirator masks with replaceable filters. Firefighters in countries using masks were not suffering from increased heatstroke, one reason the Forest Service gave Dreier for why they didn\u2019t offer masks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGetting to that point took a while,\u201d she said of confirming that other countries provide masks. \u201cBut once we figured that out, I thought, \u2018This has got to be a bigger story.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Forest Service researchers had recommended the agency provide masks because of the negative health effects from smoke, she reported. Still, wildfire fighters in the U.S. were continuing to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/10\/28\/us\/wildfire-smoke-firefighter-deaths.html\">inhale poisons without protection<\/a>. In fact, Forest Service wildfire fighters were \u201cnot allowed to wear masks on the front line, even if they want to,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/08\/17\/us\/wildfire-firefighters-masks-smoke.html\">Dreier wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And the agency, which employs most wildfire fighters in the country, was in a media lockdown. No one there would help her connect with firefighters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI couldn\u2019t get any access through the agency,\u201d she said. \u201cI realized I had to basically go out and just start meeting people where they worked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That meant going into wildfires herself to interview firefighters. That was possible thanks to a <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&amp;sectionNum=409.5\">law in California<\/a> that gives members of the press access to emergency areas.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2. Recast abstractions so they\u2019re familiar to a broader audience<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n<p>Many Americans viewed the Los Angeles wildfires through images seen on T.V. news, as Dreier initially did. Those images, though arresting, were far away. For most, the wildfires were an abstraction being fought by anonymous men and women.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation turned out to be a climate change story, Dreier said, with fires becoming more intense and fire season lasting longer as Earth warms.<\/p>\n<p>It was also a workplace safety story, with many wildfire fighters loving the work despite facing immediate and long-term dangers and having limited other employment options.<\/p>\n<p>Those two angles, climate change and workplace safety, gave the story heft and resonance that fleeting images on TV news couldn\u2019t convey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe people doing this work are really proud, and it\u2019s incredibly brave, important work,\u201d Dreier said. \u201cThey also, to me, seem like people without a lot of options and who were pretty disempowered. These are basically kids who are not going to know what the chemical composition of smoke is unless their employer is telling them. And in this case, they just were not being told anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I started talking to sick firefighters and they started telling me that even though they had severe lung damage, or even though they, you know, maybe had had a cancer diagnosis and were in remission, they were going to go back to the job because they needed the money. That\u2019s when I realized how much this was really sort of a socioeconomic story in addition to everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>3. Meeting sources where they are conveys authenticity<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t easy for Dreier to build rapport with firefighters inside the wildfires.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019d joke that if they talked to the press they\u2019d have to buy the whole crew a beer, she said. She heard it over and over. But Dreier didn\u2019t take the joke to mean the firefighters wouldn\u2019t talk to her \u2014 just that they wouldn\u2019t talk in front of their crew. So she\u2019d try to get their phone numbers, then reach them when they were back at their camps.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was really helpful because it allowed me to have these more intimate conversations over the phone,\u201d Dreier said. \u201cI think people also respected that we had bothered to go all the way out to an active wildfire and been in this risky situation together.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>4. Intimate narratives enhance data and documents<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n<p>One of the first records requests Dreier put in was for national crew deployment data over two decades from the Forest Service. The agency refused. So Dreier went to the Interior Department instead, which had the same data and provided it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe needed to know who\u2019s fighting fires,\u201d Dreier said. \u201cWe needed to know, how often are they going out there? Just to get the universe of how many wildfire workers are there, and to be able to say that the reliance on contract crews has been skyrocketing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That led Dreier to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/12\/21\/us\/wildfires-firefighters-immigration.html\">Luis Martinez<\/a>, an undocumented immigrant and contract firefighter facing cancer without health insurance while raising his 11-year-old son. Dreier was struck by Martinez\u2019 story \u2014 by his dedication to the work and to his son, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re basically auditioning characters,\u201d Dreier said of meeting sources. \u201cYou\u2019re looking for the people who are going to be able to anchor a whole story. Part of what I\u2019m doing is also keeping a running list of people who I think might be a main character.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>5. When you\u2019re ready to publish, think about how to bring your reporting to the communities your sources are part of<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s common for wildfire fighters to take videos of themselves with billowing smoke in the background. The firefighters are usually young men on two-week deployments, Dreier said. The videos they make are one way they pass their downtime. Back at camp, they upload them to social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re taking these videos of themselves with all this black smoke behind them, and they\u2019re just taking it for fun,\u201d Dreier said. \u201cFor me, I\u2019m like, that is a documentation of an occupational hazard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Times put together features explaining Dreier\u2019s reporting that were made for social media platforms \u2014 mostly TikTok and Instagram \u2014 where firefighters virtually gather.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople risked their careers, really, to talk to us and to go on the record,\u201d Dreier said. \u201cI wanted to do everything we could to make sure that this was also going back into that community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/journalistsresource.org\/media\/wildfire-fighters-deadly-smoke\/\">Hannah Dreier of the New York Times on wildland firefighters and the deadly smoke risks they face<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/journalistsresource.org\">The Journalist&#8217;s Resource<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A project of Harvard Kennedy School&#8217;s Shorenstein Center, The Journalist\u2019s Resource curates, summarizes and contextualizes high-quality research on newsy public policy topics. Supported by generous grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and individual contributors.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/journalistsresource.org\/donate-journalists-resource\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to make a donation to The Journalist\u2019s Resource<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/journalistsresource.org\/media\/wildfire-fighters-deadly-smoke\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Link to Hannah Dreier of the New York Times on wildland firefighters and the deadly smoke risks they face<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times investigation that led to major legislation compensating wildfire fighters who had worked for years in toxic smoke and developed cancer and other debilitating illnesses began with a reporter\u2019s observation: They weren\u2019t wearing masks. That led Hannah Dreier down a monthslong reporting journey as she conducted more than 400 interviews, made public &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3],"class_list":["type-post","category-news","tag-journalist-resource","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/journalists\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}