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Death Has Firefighters Taking Cancer Risk Seriously

AUBURN (CBS13) — They are in the business of saving lives. Now firefighters in the city of Auburn are taking new steps to save themselves, from the cancer-causing dangers they face daily.

The new approach comes after Auburn firefighter Trent Lindholdt died from lung cancer this year.

"It was an absolute total shock," interim Battalion Chief Robert Zaucha said. "When you have a loss in your department, you try and honor that member by making sure it doesn't happen again."

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Besides the mourning over his loss, Lindholdt's deadly cancer diagnosis at 47 years old has had another impact. His firefighting brothers are now changing how they work. They now quickly clean off cancer-causing chemicals that stick to their turnouts as soon as they can.

"One of the preventive measures we took after fires is putting our turnouts into simple trash bags," Auburn Fire Department engineer Tony D'Ambrogi said.

Trash bags keep the toxin-covered turnouts contained. After every fire, they also use specially-formulated firefighter wipes to clean their skin. The soot-covered face of a firefighter is no longer a measure of greatness.

"Now it's like 'You were so close, that was so close, you were in the carcinogens,' and it really changed our perspective, losing one of our own," D'Ambrogi said.

For these Auburn firefighters, they are not waiting for a policy. They are acting now, on their own, from a painful loss that has become a powerful lesson.

"It's just a new way of life," Zaucha said. "A new way of looking at how we do our business."

Trent Lindholdt's name will be added to the Firefighters Memorial in Sacramento at end of this month.

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