Document name

Injuries - Firefighters

Document number

PRO 16/2024

POL 16/2024, Injuries – Firefighters, outlines the firefighter injury presumptions under The Workers’ Compensation Act, 2013 and The Workers’ Compensation General Regulations, 1985.

1. As with all reported injuries and diseases, staff will obtain all relevant information to determine if the injury or disease arose out of and in the course of employment. Staff will determine entitlement based on the weight of that information.

Period of Service or Employment

2. The list of occupational diseases presumed to be compensable and the required minimum periods of service for volunteer or employment for full-time and part-time firefighters are outlined in POL 16/2024, Injuries – Firefighters.
3. The WCB will consider the firefighter’s cumulative period of service or employment to consider all of the individual’s history as a firefighter, whether their period of service or employment is consecutive or not.
4. For cardiac injury that manifests within 24 hours after attendance at an emergency response, no minimum period of service or employment will be required.

Exposure

5. If a firefighter is or has been regularly exposed to the risks and hazards associated with a fire scene and meets the minimum period of service or employment, the WCB will presume the cancer is an occupational disease.
6. Risks and hazards associated with a fire scene could include, but are not limited to:
   1. Wearing contaminated fire gear,
   2. Attending a fire scene, or
   3. Attending the scene after the fire has been extinguished.
7. The firefighter presumptions will also apply to positions that need to attend the fire scene after the fire has been put out (e.g., to determine cause of fire, to clean-up, etc.), who are also exposed to fire risks and hazards.

Claim Management

8. The claim will be managed as any other injury claim in determining extent of disability, monitoring of medical treatment, determining fitness for employment (pre-injury or suitable) and determining post-injury earning capacity.
9. In the case of a cancer diagnosis, the claim will be referred to Extended Services to provide support services to the worker.

Appeals

10. If a listed occupational disease for a firefighter was previously denied under former legislation, the firefighter (or dependants) can request WCB to reconsider the original decision.
11. The WCB team responsible for the most recent decision (e.g., Operations staff, Appeals Officer, Board Appeal Tribunal) will review the claim for reconsideration before progressing to the next level of appeal (e.g., the Appeals Department, Board Appeal Tribunal).

Cost Relief

12. Operations staff regularly review claims for cost relief. Operations staff will remove all costs from an employer’s cost experience if the employer would not have known about the carcinogenic effect in the workplace at the time of exposure.
13. Legislative amendments are generally made in light of scientific research that confirms a cause-and-effect relationship between a certain type of work environment and certain types of cancers. The Occupational Disease procedure states that if an employer would not have known about the carcinogenic effect in their workplace at the time of exposure, cost relief can be considered. Cost relief may be considered in situations where exposure to the harmful substances occurred prior to the effective date of the legislative amendment (See Appendix for details).