ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The Liberal Fire Department is on the scene at many emergency situations and recently, the department got some much-deserved recognition.
The Liberal Fire Department has been recognized as a Gold Helmet Department for having many of the firefighters enrolled in the National Firefighter Registry (NFR) for cancer. The NFR is the largest effort undertaken to understand and reduce cancer among U.S. firefighters, and LFD Battalion Chief Aaron Luman said the designation is a great honor.
“The NFR started taking enrollment in April 2023 and then there were several members of the LFD who attended the state fire chiefs' conference in Manhattan back in October, and the NFR was a topic of conversation there,” Luman said. “To get the Gold Helmet status, a fire department must have 50 percent or more of its workforce signed up in the NFR, and there was a point where we had reached that criteria, so we notified the powers that be at the CDC and NIOSH and ultimately got the recognition.”
Upon getting the official word, Luman said he and the rest of the LFD staff were very excited.
“We informed the CDC and NIOSH and shared our numbers with them, and then they looked at their records to confirm everything. We sent everything in last Monday, and then it was the next day when we got the notification we'd been deemed a Gold Helmet Department,” Luman said. “It's a really big deal for us and the guys, we couldn't have done this without everyone buying in. We didn't force anyone to participate, we just shared how it was an option and let them decide, and now that we've got the designation, everyone's really excited about it all. The LFD is the seventh fire department in Kansas and one of 80 fire departments total throughout the U.S. to receive this designation, so it's a really big deal for us to be in that first wave of recognitions. For the LFD, it's a real eye-opener. We're looking at certain things for our firefighters so after they get back from responding to a fire, there are things we can do to get rid of more of the carcinogens off the gear. We want out guys to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible, so this designation has opened our eyes to steps we can take to help the guys stay healthy.”
The Gold Helmet designation, Luman said, is all about helping the firefighters.
“This designation is absolutely a health and safety matter for the guys, and I think it's made them more aware of things they can do,” Luman said. “One of the things we're looking at is getting stronger decontamination soap that's designed to wash away the dirt and possible carcinogens after responding to a fire, and that stuff is much, much stronger than the typical body wash. There are some of those products on the market we want to invest in. Again, we want the guys to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible so they can work with us for as long as possible.”
Luman added some collaboration with other fire departments is not out of the realm of possibility, and the future looks to be bright for the rest of 2025.
“We definitely want to collaborate with other fire departments, the biggest thing is just getting the word out there of how this exists and is a possibility. It takes 15 minutes to sign up for that registry, and it's something that can be a big benefit in the future,” Luman said. “For the rest of 2025, we want to finish strong. We hope everyone stays safe throughout the holidays and we're also talking about goals for 2026 and what we want to focus on there. We’re definitely not planning on slowing down.”
