美国野火的隐性受害者

理发店能教会我们什么关于心理健康的事？而编发又如何能将社区紧密相连？大家好，我是伊莎贝拉·鲁索里尼。在欧莱雅集团最新一期《这不是美容》播客中，我们将聆听一位伦敦刚果难民和一位纽约理发师的故事，了解美如何塑造人际关系。

What can a barber shop teach us about mental health? And how can hair braiding help weave together a community? Hi there. I'm Isabella Russolini. And in the latest episode of This Is Not a Beauty podcast from L'Oreal Group, we'll hear from a Congolese refugee in London and a New York based barber to understand how beauty shapes our relationships.

立即在您喜爱的播客平台收听。

Listen now on your favorite podcast platform.

这里是《纽约时报》的瑞秋·艾布拉姆斯，您正在收听《每日播报》。随着野火季变得愈发漫长和致命，各州正越来越多地依赖私营公司向前线输送成千上万消防员。今天，我的同事汉娜·德莱尔将揭示宽松的法规和监管漏洞如何导致许多消防员患病、负债且孤立无援。今天是10月28日，星期二。汉娜，感觉每年野火都在加剧，而你花了数月时间专门调查野火扑救行业。

From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. As wildfire seasons grow longer and deadlier, states are increasingly relying on private companies to provide thousands of firefighters to the front lines. Today, my colleague Hannah Dryer explains how lax rules and regulatory loopholes have left many of these firefighters sick, in debt, and on their own. It's Tuesday, October 28. Hannah, it feels like every year, there are more and more wildfires, and you have spent months investigating one specific aspect of wildfires, which is the wildfire fighting industry.

我想先请你谈谈为何对这个特定角度产生兴趣。最初是在洛杉矶那场大火之后开始思考这个问题。嗯。

So I'd love to start off with you telling us what got you interested in that particular angle. I first started thinking about this after the fires that tore through Los Angeles Mhmm.

一月份时，我看到大量关于消防员的影像资料涌入。我无法忽视那些站在最浓烈有毒黑烟中却无人佩戴口罩的消防员。这让我不禁思考：为何会这样？在这种无防护环境下工作会带来什么后果？

In January. I saw that there was all this footage, all these pictures coming in of the people who were fighting those fires. And I couldn't help but notice that there were all of these firefighters out there standing in what looked like the most toxic black smoke. And none of them were wearing masks. And it got me wondering why is that and what might be the consequences of working in that kind of environment with no protection.

于是我开始深挖野火扑救行业。我发现这个行业完全与众不同——消防员们在极度危险的环境中毫无防护地工作，许多人年纪轻轻就患上重病。当他们出现严重肺损伤或癌症等与烟雾暴露相关的疾病时，往往只能独自承担。

And so I started digging into the industry of people who fight wildfires. And what I discovered is that it's completely unlike any industry. They are out there in these really hazardous conditions and they work without protection. And a lot of them are getting very sick at young ages. And when they develop things like severe lung damage or cancer, things that are linked to the smoke exposure, they're often on their own.

很多人甚至连基本医疗保险都没有。

Often, they don't even have basic health insurance.

简单来说，从开始工作到实际患病，他们在这一过程的多个不同阶段都处于弱势。

So basically, they're vulnerable at several different stages of this process from starting work to actually getting sick.

确实。很多人告诉我，他们觉得自己是冒着健康风险去保护他人。但当他们自己生病时，却似乎没有人保护他们。这不是个小问题——现在有数万人几乎全年都在从事这项工作。

Exactly. I mean, what a lot of people have told me is they feel like they put their health on the line to protect people. And then when they get sick themselves, there's sort of no one there protecting them. And this is not a small issue. There are tens of thousands of people who do this work almost year round now.

随着山火季节延长且愈发猛烈，这个问题只会变得越来越紧迫。为此我采访了数百名消防员，其中许多人病情严重。但有个故事令我印象深刻。

And as wildfire season grows longer and gets more intense, this is something that is just gonna become more and more urgent. So to get my arms around this, I talked to hundreds of firefighters. Many of them were very sick. But there was one story that really stood out to me.

你好，请进。谢谢，我是马特，乔尔的父亲。

Hi. Come on in. Thanks. I'm Matt. I'm Joel's dad.

这位年轻人叫乔尔·艾森明格。我们能从你的童年开始聊起吗？

This is a young man named Joel Eiseminger. So can we go all the way back to your childhood and start there?

就是经常骑自行车，参加很多比赛。

Just a lot of, riding bicycles and a lot of races.

乔尔是个害羞的孩子，经常搬家。他交朋友并不总是那么容易。他热爱运动——长途徒步、长途骑行，高中时打长曲棍球，外号叫'攻城锤'。

Joel was a shy kid who moved around a lot. He didn't always have an easy time making friends. He was really physical. He went on long hikes, long bike rides. He played lacrosse in high school and his nickname was battering ram.

但他在学校很难集中注意力。有时他都不去上课。勉强才毕了业。毕业后，他也不知道该做什么。

But he had a hard time focusing in school. Sometimes he didn't go to class. He sort of barely managed to graduate. And once he graduated, he wasn't sure what he was gonna do.

在塔可钟找了份工作。

Got a job at Taco Bell.

他住在俄勒冈州。在塔可钟找了份工作。有天晚上

He was living in Oregon. He got a job at Taco Bell. And one night

我看了一部叫《勇往直前》的电影。我曾在蒙大拿州大蒂姆伯附近参与过一场山火扑救。

I watched a movie called Only the Brave. I worked this blaze near Big Timber, Montana.

他开始在电视上看这部叫《勇往直前》的电影。

He started watching this movie on TV called Only the Grave.

无论发生什么，我们都不能再上去了。大家待在一起。

No matter what's going on, we can't go back up there. Stay together.

这部电影讲的是几年前发生的一场悲剧，基本上整支野外消防队都葬身火海。

It's a movie that's about this tragedy that happened a few years ago where basically an entire crew of wildland firefighters died burned by a fire.

嘿，苏。我就是想谢谢你刚才拉我一把。那真是惊险一刻，对吧？毫无疑问，老兄，我以为我要完蛋了。

Hey, Sue. I just wanted to thank you for pulling me out earlier. It was definitely an ass pucker, wasn't it? No doubt, man. I thought I was dying.

虽然这是部悲剧电影，但他的反应却是聚焦在这些船员之间的羁绊上。

And it's this tragic movie, but his reaction to it was to focus on the bond between these crew members.

如果这都不算世界上最棒的工作，那我不知道什么才是。你说对吧，先生？所以

If this ain't the greatest job in the world, I don't know what is. You got that right, sir? So

电影里这些人总在开玩笑。他们关系非常亲密，这点特别吸引乔尔。他白天在快餐店打工，对他而言这份工作简直像天赐良机——既能户外活动，又有朋友相伴，还能做他最擅长的体力活。

in the movie, these guys are always joking. They're really close, and that really appealed to Joel. I mean, he's working at, like, a fast food restaurant during the day. And to him, this is like, oh my god. It's a way to be outside, have friends, and be doing what he's best at, which is this sort of like physical work.

于是第二天他就去申请了太平洋绿洲公司的工作。太平洋绿洲是什么？它是数百家为联邦政府提供私人消防服务的公司之一。相比直接受雇于联邦政府当消防员，这类工作更容易获得。是因为官僚程序少吗？

So the very next day, he goes and applies to work for a company called Pacific Oasis. And what's Pacific Oasis? Pacific Oasis is one of hundreds of companies that now offer private firefighting services to the federal government. And these are easier jobs to get than working directly for the federal government doing firefighting. Like less red tape?

没错。需要填的表格更少，流程更简单，当场就能被录用。所以吸引了很多像乔尔这样在生活中有些迷茫的人。虽然比联邦政府的工作容易获得，但代价是保障和福利都大幅缩水。

Yeah. Less paperwork to fill out, fewer hoops to jump through. You can get hired on the spot. And so they attract a lot of people like Joel who maybe were a little adrift in life. So it's an easier job to get than working for the federal government, but there's a trade off, which is that there are a lot fewer protections and fewer benefits.

比如大多数这类公司的员工都没有医疗保险。他们接受的培训更少，整体而言享有的保护也更为有限。

So most people working for these companies don't have health insurance, for example. They have less training. And overall, they're just sort of less protected.

我在塔可钟工作时有个经理。他其实提到了太平洋绿洲，所以我对这个名字早有印象。他给我讲了很多精彩的故事，我当时就觉得，哇，这太棒了。你知道吗？他就说，哦，招谁都行。

So at Taco Bell, I had a manager. He brought up Pacific Oasis actually, so like I had that in my head already. And he just told me all the cool stories, and I was like, oh, this is sweet, man. You know? He's like, oh, hire anybody.

乔尔走进门，与公司总裁会面。

Joel walks in the door. He meets with the president of the company.

他说，你就是我们一直在找的人。

He's like, this you're exactly what we're looking for.

当场就给他报名参加培训。他几乎立刻就被派往一场重大火灾现场。那时他才18岁。他父亲马特记得开车送他去太平洋绿洲总部的情景。

And signs him up for training straight away on the spot. And he's almost immediately sent out to a major fire. And he's still 18 at this point. His father, Matt, remembers driving him down to the Pacific Oasis headquarters.

我就这样陪他过去，像送他去参加体育比赛一样把他送到火灾现场。你懂我意思吗？当然我非常担心他，我想大多数父母都会这样。

So I went down there with him and dropped him off at the fire like it was a sporting event. You know what I mean? And I was incredibly worried about him, of course, as I think most parents would be.

马特非常担心乔尔要面对如此危险的情况。他知道儿子有点固执，有时会越界。他也明白无法阻止乔尔从事这份工作。乔尔很坚定，但他真的非常担心。这完全可以理解。

Matt was so worried that Joel was gonna go out in this really dangerous situation. He knows his son is sort of hardheaded, maybe sometimes pushes boundaries. And he knew he couldn't stop Joel from signing up for this work. Joel was determined, but he was really worried. Understandably.

史蒂夫看到我紧张地来回踱步等待，就主动走过来找我。我当时正站在...

So Steve saw me just nervously pacing and waiting and he Steve came up to me and he approached me. And I was staying out of

太平洋绿洲公司的总裁史蒂夫·多兹走过来与马特交谈，安抚他的情绪。

And Steve Dodds, who's the president of Pacific Oasis, comes over and talks to Matt and reassures him.

他说：‘嘿，我们会好好照顾他的，他会没事的。’这种话谁都会说，但我当时真心相信他，那一刻我对他充满敬意。

And he said, hey, we'll take good care of him. He's gonna be alright. And anybody could say that, but I truly did believe him. I I respected him at that point.

然后乔尔跳上一辆卡车，驶向他的第一场火灾现场。能跟我们说说你的第一次灭火经历吗？

And then Joel gets in a truck and he drives off to his very first fire. So can you tell us about your first fire?

那场火就像是从加州烧到了俄勒冈州边界，我们的任务就是防止火势蔓延到俄勒冈境内。

It was like California coming to the Oregon border, so we were there to, like, protect it coming into Oregon.

这场火灾被称为‘克拉马森大火’，每场火灾都有名字。

This fire was called the Klamathon fire. Every fire has a name.

当时我们主要进行直接手工作业。就是在火线边缘，挖到裸露的矿质土层，做出一道小型防火带，这样火势就会停止蔓延。

So we were doing a lot of direct hand line. So that's, you're at the fire's edge. You're digging down like bare mineral soil, creating like a small fire break, but the fire stops.

所以扑救野火并不像我们想象的传统消防作业。通常不会用到水带喷水，更多是挖掘隔离带来控制火势。

So fighting a wildfire is not like what we sort of imagine when we think of fire fighting. There's not usually water and hoses involved. It's more like you're digging a containment line.

我原本肯定认为任何灭火都需要用水，所以这很有趣。

I would definitely think that any kind of firefighting required water, so this is interesting.

我的意思是，野火规模太大，无法用水扑灭。嗯。实际上只能设法围堵和控制火势。

I mean, what it is is that wildfires are too big to put out with water. Mhmm. They can really only be trapped and contained.

你只是试图阻止火势在地面蔓延。基本上就是处理小火苗、闷烧和...

You're just trying to stop it from spreading on the ground. Basically, small flames, smoldering and

但对乔尔这样的人来说，这意味着你要以难以置信的方式紧邻火场工作。乔尔第一晚基本上就是在悬崖边缘紧挨着活跃火场来回走动。

But what that means for somebody like Joel is that you're just working right next to the fire in a way that's sort of unbelievable. Joel's first night was basically traipsing around on a cliff's edge right next to the active fire.

那场初火最可怕的部分是，他们称之为'货运列车'。你开始听到火声。看不见火，但能听到树木被点燃爆裂的声音，就像...没错，像火车。

The scariest part about that first fire was, they call it a freight train. You start hearing the fire. You can't see it, but you just start hearing trees just torching and running. It sounds like, yeah, a train.

他告诉我当时听到树木断裂的声音。

He told me about how he was hearing trees snap.

整晚都在，你知道的，

And all night long, you know,

所以他正在穿越检查点。

can't So he's crossing checkpoints.

我们的国民警卫队在那里。他们封锁了所有高速公路。

Our national guard was there. They shut down all highways.

然后他就能绕过他们，带着团队进入这个禁区般的地方。

Then he gets to drive around them to go to this sort of off limit space with his crew.

我当时觉得这简直是最酷的事情。没错。

I'm like, I thought it the coolest thing ever. Yeah.

这是个疯狂、不可预测的场面。

And it's this wild, unpredictable scene.

完全是混乱，伙计。火焰开始肆虐，风向突变。

It's pure chaos, dude. Flames start ripping, wind changes.

他现在就紧挨着这些火焰。

Where he is right next to these flames.

火焰在我们两侧燃烧，我抬头一看，就像200英尺高的火墙，离我只有50英尺远。我当时就想，大家都...

Fire on both sides of us, it's like, I look up, like a 200 foot wall of flames just like 50 feet away from me. I'm just like, everybody's

他开始认识这些人，他们既教他如何在野外保持安全，又时不时地调侃他。

And he's starting to get to know these guys who are sort of teaching him how to be out there and stay safe, but also teasing him.

我最亲密的朋友们，就是在第一次灭火行动中认识的。你知道，我一直保持着这个朋友圈。

My closest friends, I met on that first fire. You know, I've kept that circle.

对他来说，这正是他期待的一切——能够出去扑灭山火。

For him, it was everything he had hoped it might be to to go out and fight a wildfire.

听起来他找到了那种令他向往的兄弟情谊。

It sounds like he found that band of brothers element that he was really drawn

确实如此。之后他就完全着迷了。他又参加了六个灭火季，学会了使用链锯。这意味着他会带领这群人深入森林，走在队伍前面砍伐树木，切断燃烧的树枝。

to. Absolutely. So after that, he was pretty much hooked. He worked six more fire seasons. He learned to work a chainsaw, and that meant that he would sort of be out in front of the rest of the crew leading this group of guys deep into the woods, cutting down trees, cutting down flaming branches.

我花了大概三年时间才能拿着链锯、负重穿越森林而不摔倒，不知道你能否理解这种感觉。

It took me three about three years to be able to walk through the woods without falling over, if that makes sense. Like, with a chainsaw, with all the weight, it took about three years.

他会背着50磅的背包徒步旅行。就是，你知道的，只有他、他的朋友们和大自然。

He would be hiking with a 50 pound pack. Just, you know, him, his friends, and nature.

你就像脱离了日常生活。我个人也不喜欢日常生活。所以，我喜欢这样。懂吗？

You're you're removed from, like, everyday life. And I don't like everyday life personally. So it's like, I like that. You know?

这确实对体力要求很高，但对他来说也非常有收获，让他感到自豪。他觉得这终于是一件他天生擅长的事。

It's really physically demanding, but it was also for him really rewarding and made him proud. He felt like it was finally something that he was just naturally good at.

就是自由。当海盗的感觉不像在工作。我们在那里做的事情就像过家家，你知道吗，简直就是童话世界。所以很酷。

Just freedom. Being on pirates doesn't feel like a job. It's like make believe stuff that we do out there, you know, it's just fairyland shit. So it's cool.

但这其中也包含很多风险。有一次他从燃烧的山坡上摔下来。他差点用电锯切到自己的脚。还全身都染上了毒葛。哦。

But it also involved a lot of risk. He fell down a burning hill once. He almost cut into his foot with his chainsaw. He got full body poison oak. Oh.

这份工作最危险的事情之一就是火灾的自然副产品——吸入浓烟。而且那里没人戴口罩。

And one of the most dangerous things about the work was a natural byproduct of fires, was breathing in smoke. And nobody out there wore masks.

他们为什么不戴口罩呢？

Why wouldn't they wear masks?

他刚开始这份工作时，既没有提供口罩，也不允许佩戴。这是林务局长期以来的政策。林务局声称佩戴口罩会增加中暑风险。这项工作本身就很耗费体力，而野外通常非常炎热。

Masks weren't provided when he started this work, and they also weren't allowed. And this is a long time forest service policy. And what the Forest Service says is that wearing a mask could increase your risk of heat stroke. The work is really taxing. It's usually pretty hot out there.

他们的顾虑是，如果面部被遮挡可能会引发过热。虽然世界其他地区的野外消防员确实会佩戴口罩，且并未出现中暑问题，但林务局仍坚持这一说法。此外还存在不愿显得软弱的文化因素——消防员认为戴口罩很可笑，像是无法胜任工作的标志，而吸入烟雾反而被视为愿意牺牲、专注手头工作的表现，说明你不会过分在意个人舒适。

And the concern is if you're out there with something over your face, maybe you would start to overheat. Wildland firefighters in other parts of the world do wear masks, and there has not been a heat stroke issue there, but that's what the Forest Service says. But there was also this cultural element of not wanting to seem weak. Firefighters sort of see masks as, like, silly as a sign that you're not gonna be up to the job, and breathing in smoke is seen as a sign that you're willing to, you know, take sacrifices and focus on the work at hand, and you're not gonna get too caught up in your own comfort.

所以你的意思是，即便当时提供了口罩，由于这种文化氛围，他们很可能也不会佩戴？

So, basically, even if they had been provided with masks, what you're saying is that they probably wouldn't have worn them because of this culture.

是的，这就是消防前线的大男子主义文化。但值得注意的是，像乔尔这样的消防员当时根本没被告知需要担心烟雾危害。部分原因可能是觉得口罩显得软弱，但更可能是他们根本不认为佩戴有什么实际好处。然而他们承受的烟雾暴露确实非常严重。

Yeah. There is this macho fireline culture. But I also think it's worth noting that at this point, firefighters like Joel weren't told that there was any reason to be concerned about smoke. So part of it maybe is that they thought that the masks could make them look weak, but they also maybe just had no reason to think that there would be a real benefit to wearing them. But the smoke exposure was really intense.

太平洋绿洲公司的工人告诉我，清晨他们的消防营地里咳嗽声此起彼伏，就像肺气肿诊所。人们咳个不停，鼻子里流出黑色物质。消防营地里流传着所谓'营地信誉'——当所有人都在咳嗽、都感到不适时，大家只觉得这是工作的必然结果。

Pacific Oasis workers told me that morning sounded like an emphysema clinic in their fire camps. They were coughing. They had black stuff coming out their noses. There's something called camp cred that goes around these fire camps where everyone will be coughing and everyone will be sort of feeling sick. And people just think of it as like a natural consequence of the work.

对乔尔而言，这就像肌肉酸痛一样。他认为这就是救火工作的一部分。这些症状反而证明他做对了，付出了足够的努力。他极力想引起上司史蒂夫的注意，向史蒂夫展示自己的坚韧，争取被派往更多火场甚至获得晋升。因此他工作非常拼命。

For Joel, it was sort of like being sore. It was just something that he thought came along with fighting fires. And for him, it was proof that he was doing something right and he was putting in the right amount of effort. He was really focused on trying to get his boss Steve's attention and show Steve that he was tough and he should be sent out on more fires and maybe promoted. So he was working really hard.

他试图打动史蒂夫，证明自己愿意付出任何牺牲。

He was trying to impress Steve, show Steve that he would make any sacrifice.

而且

And

他会咳出黑色的东西。

He would cough up black stuff.

没错。连续几周毫无怨言地外出工作。他还获得了这些好评。史蒂夫似乎很欣赏他的表现。最终，史蒂夫邀请他开始接受队长培训，这意味着他将领导一个约20人的团队。

Exactly. Go out for weeks and weeks without complaining. And he was getting these positive reviews. Steve seemed to be liking what he was doing. And eventually, Steve invited him to start training to be a crew boss, which meant that he would lead his own team of about 20 people.

对乔尔来说，那是他人生中最自豪的时刻之一。这太有成就感了。你曾想过把整个职业生涯都奉献给消防事业吗？

And that for Joel was one of the proudest moments of his life. It was so validating. Did you imagine spending your whole career in fire?

哦，当然。我早就认定这行了。大概19岁时我就知道这是我想从事的职业。我可能会一直干下去。

Oh, yeah. I already knew I was in. Yeah. I knew I that's a job I wanted probably when I was 19. I was probably gonna stick with that one.

要知道，我很擅长这个。真的非常擅长。

You know, I'm good at it. I'm really good at it.

他开始将这视为自己终身的职业。正因如此，接下来发生的事情才让他感到如此背叛。

And he started to see this as probably being his lifelong career. And that's why what happened next felt like such a betrayal.

我们马上回来。

We'll be right back.

我叫托马斯·吉维斯内夫，是《纽约时报》的记者。我曾在海军陆战队担任步兵。在前线报道时，许多基本要素都至关重要。你要时刻关注行进路线图。

My name is Thomas Givisneff. I'm a journalist at The New York Times. I served in the Marine Corps as an infantryman. When it comes to reporting on the front line, a lot of the same basics are at play. You're looking at the map of where you're going.

如果你在铺装道路或野战道路上，要清楚附近是否有医院？你的防弹衣上是否固定了急救包？所有人都知道急救包的位置吗？我们抵达军事阵地后，我下了车。

If you're on a paved road, field roads, know, there a hospital nearby? Is your body armor affixed with the first aid kit? Does everyone know where that first aid kit is? We arrive into a military position. I get out of the car.

我看了看手表，设定了计时器——不超过一小时。我边监听无人机和喷气机的动静，边与团队核对情况：大家都适应吗？

I look at my watch. You know, I set a timer. No more than an hour. I'm listening for drones, jets, check-in with the team. Is everyone comfortable?

如果一切正常，我们就继续前进。前线报道很危险，但我觉得没有什么比与当事人交谈、倾听他们的故事，并将这些故事传递给千里之外的读者更重要了。任何能让这类报道更具人情味的努力，我认为都值得冒险。《纽约时报》的订阅者让我们得以持续进行这项重要报道，如需订阅请访问nytimes.com/subscribe。

And if they are, then we proceed. Frontline reporting is dangerous, but I think nothing is more important than talking to the people involved, you know, hearing their stories and being able to connect that with people thousands of miles away. Anything that can make something like this more personal, I think, is well worth the risk. New York Times subscribers make it possible for us to keep doing this vital coverage. If you'd like to subscribe, you can do that at nytimes.com/subscribe.

汉娜，听起来乔尔基本过上了理想生活。他是从什么时候开始急转直下的？

So Hannah, it sounds like Joel is basically living his dream life. When do things start taking a turn for the worst for him?

是的。回想起来，当时我收到了很多不同的信号。

Yes. So looking back at it, I had a lot of different signs.

一切从去年开始分崩离析。那是在七月四日的周末。

Everything started falling apart last year. It was the fourth of July weekend.

要知道，在那之前我可能正处于人生中最好的状态。我刚完成了工头培训课程，

You know, I was extremely probably the best shape I've ever been in my life before that, you know. I just did my crew boss class and

他在北加州参与灭火行动时，住在一家酒店里。

I He was fighting a fire in Northern California, staying in a hotel.

我突然起了疹子。

I broke out in a rash.

他腿上出现了这种奇怪的疹子，还在不断向上蔓延。

He had this strange rash that was sort of creeping up his legs.

我全身都是，老兄，疼得要命。我完全不知道怎么回事。

My body, and it was so painful, dude. And I didn't know what was going on.

真的很痛。看起来像是从未见过的症状，但他不想抱怨。

It really hurt. It looked like nothing he'd ever seen But he didn't wanna complain.

我们住在酒店对吧？结果大家都在说‘天啊有臭虫’，所有人都慌了。

And we're staying in hotels. Right? So everybody's like, oh, got bedbugs. Everybody's like freaking out.

于是他没管这事。然后他的队伍深入森林，开始在那里扎营以靠近火线。

And so he let it slide. Then his crew moves deep into the forest and they start camping there to get closer to the fire line.

嗯。第9天还是第10天，我的脸开始耷拉下来。

Mhmm. Day nine or 10, my face started to like droop.

那时队友们注意到他的脸下垂了。他半边嘴就那么张着。

That's when his crewmates noticed that his face is drooping. Half of his mouth is sort of just hanging open.

每次出火场任务，总会有件事一直折磨你。要么是水泡，要么是指甲出问题，总会有状况。

Every fire you go on, there's gonna be one thing that's always bugging you. You're gonna have blisters, something, some fingernail messed up, you're gonna have something.

再说，他想被视作那种能当队长的硬汉。所以他继续每天工作12小时直到任务结束。那时医护兵终于发现他，说‘你得去医院，你可能中风了’。

And again, he wants to be seen as this, you know, tough person who could be a crew boss. And so he keeps going working these twelve hour shifts until the end of their deployment. That's when a medic finally sees him and says, you need to get to the hospital. You might have had a stroke.

当时有人担心他吗？在他面部下垂还坚持工作期间，我们了解到什么情况？

Were people worried about him? Do we know during the period that he's working with a drooping face?

你知道，人们注意到了，但没人太担心。我想这某种程度上源于火线文化。消防员们说，如果你在火线上受伤，就往伤口上抹点土继续前进。

You know, people noticed it, but nobody was that worried. And I think that partly goes back to this fireline culture. I mean, firefighters say if you get injured out on the fireline, you just rub dirt in it and keep walking.

天啊。

Oh my god.

所以每个人都全神贯注于控制火势，无论如何都要继续前进。

So everybody is just very focused on getting this fire under control and keeping going sort of no matter what happens.

那么医护人员告诉他需要紧急治疗。他去医院了吗？他听从建议了吗？

So the medic tells him you need urgent medical attention. Does he go to a hospital? Does he heed that advice?

于是乔尔选择不叫救护车，而是由公司老板史蒂夫开车送他。

So Joel opts not to take an ambulance. He instead is driven by Steve, the owner of the company.

按我的理解，我们是要去医院对吧？所以

And in my impression, I'm going to the hospital. Right? So

他以为史蒂夫会送他去医院。这应该是那种情况下的标准程序。嗯。但结果他被从火线往回开了九十分钟。更让他惊讶的是，史蒂夫把他丢在了他父亲家。

He thinks that Steve is going to take him to the hospital. That's sort of the protocol for a moment like that. Mhmm. Instead, he was driven ninety minutes back from the fire line. And then he's surprised because Steve drops him off at his dad's house.

现在已经快午夜了。他看起来憔悴不堪，虚弱无力。

It's almost midnight at this point. He looks drawn. He looks weak.

你当时要是问我这个人是什么肤色，我可能都答不上来。我当时就是那么恍惚。你知道，我的身体正在停止运转。

You could have asked me what color this guy was and I probably didn't know. That's how just messed up I was. You know, my body was just shutting down.

当我看到他那种状态时，我就知道这不是普通感冒。

When I saw him in that state, I knew this isn't a cold.

而他父亲意识到情况非常不对劲。

And his dad realizes something's terribly wrong here.

我开车送他去医院时，觉得他随时都可能死去。我有这种预感。

I drove him to the hospital thinking that he's gonna die at any moment. I knew it.

并立即将他送往急诊室。

And immediately takes him to the emergency room.

作为父母，经历这种事之后就再也回不到从前了。

There's no going back from something like that happening as a parent.

在医院里，医生开始进行各种检查，经过几天的测试，乔尔的身体越来越虚弱。此时他甚至无法在走廊上行走。最终医生给出了一个出乎所有人意料的结果：他被诊断出患有急性髓系白血病，这是一种侵袭性血癌，常见于六七十岁的老年人。

So at the hospital, doctors start running tests, and it takes a few days of tests, and Joel is getting weaker and weaker. At this point, he can't even really walk down the hallway. And eventually they come back with an answer that nobody expects. He is diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, which is an aggressive blood cancer that is most often seen in people in their sixties and seventies.

不应该是乔尔这个年纪的人啊。他当时多大？

Not somebody Joel's age. And how old was he at that point?

他在25岁生日前一天被确诊。哇。

He is diagnosed the day before he turns 25. Wow.

那一刻，他仍处于震惊中。感觉不真实，但你知道这就是现实。

That moment, it's still in shock for him. It feels fake, but it's not, you know.

他需要立即进行化疗和输血。之前在他腿上蔓延的皮疹实际上是未经治疗时血液系统崩溃的表现。他可能在几周内就会死亡。事实上即使接受医疗干预，这类癌症患者中只有约一半能活过一年。但这些天乔尔满脑子想的都是如何尽快完成治疗，重返消防岗位。

He needs immediate chemotherapy, immediate blood transfusions. That rash that was creeping up his legs turns out to have been his blood basically just breaking down without treatment. He could die within a matter of weeks. And the truth is even with medical interventions, only about half of patients with this kind of cancer survive a year. But all Joel is thinking about in these days is how quickly he can get through treatment and get back to fighting fires.

老兄，我真的很期待能回到那个队伍。我和那支队伍紧密相连，那是支优秀的队伍。你知道，他们是出勤时间最长的队伍之一。

So I was really excited, man, to go back with that crew. I was locked in with that crew, but it was a good crew. They got the most hours out of any of the crews, you know.

他某种程度上还没意识到情况的严重性，没意识到自己正面临死亡威胁。他只是执着于自己原以为即将展开的人生。

He's sort of not understanding how serious the situation is, how in danger he is of dying. And he's just focused on this life that he thought was in front of him.

听起来他几乎无法接受自己身体正在发生的现实。

It sounds like he almost couldn't accept the reality of what was actually happening to his body.

是的。我是说，这对他太突然了。他根本无法理解发生了什么。但对他父亲而言，现实非常清晰。他回想起七年前把乔尔托付给史蒂夫的第一天，对方承诺会照顾好他儿子。

Yes. I mean, it's so jarring for him. Like, he just can't really process what's going on. But for his father, the reality was very clear. And he was thinking back to that first day when he dropped off Joel and Steve said that he would take care of his son.

七年前正是同一个人把他送到我家门口，当时对我说‘我们会照顾好他’。

He got dropped off at my doorstep by the same person, not seven years prior, had told me, hey, we're going to take care of him.

史蒂夫表示，他理解乔尔的诊断会是个漫长过程，不可能一蹴而就。他本想让乔尔先在家休息，次日再去医院，算是行个方便。但马特始终无法释怀那个噩梦般的时刻——看着命悬一线的孩子被送回家而不是医院。

For his part, Steve says that he understood that this was going to be a long diagnostic process for Joel. It wasn't going to be a quick thing. And he was trying to do Joel a favor by letting him rest at home and then go into the hospital the next day. But Matt just cannot get over that moment, that nightmare moment of seeing your child. He felt like on death's door and they're being taken to your house instead of taken to get medical care.

他们任由他瘫在那里，面部麻痹流着口水，浑身肌肉失控疼痛。他情况很糟。

They let him linger out there having facial paralysis, drooling, and all this stuff going on. He had no control over his muscles, pain. He wasn't okay.

这种事本可能发生在任何私营消防公司。无论他为谁工作，都可能不戴口罩暴露在浓烟中，最终因患癌住院。但马特和乔尔后来执着于被送回家的具体细节——时间地点——因为他们觉得乔尔像垃圾一样被随意丢弃，仿佛始终只是个可弃置的工人。

And what happened to him really could have happened at any private firefighting company. No matter who he worked for, he would probably have been out there without a mask, in heavy smoke. And he might've ended up in this exact situation at the hospital sick with cancer. But I think that for Matt and eventually for Joel, they got really fixated on these specifics of where he got dropped off, what time it was, because they felt like Joel was just sort of dumped. Like he had been a disposable worker all along.

因此他们感到出离愤怒。与此同时，所有医疗账单开始接踵而至。

And so they felt really mad. And meanwhile, all of these medical bills started to come in.

我在支付第一笔医院账单。我没有保险。这些钱都是从我口袋里掏出来的。对吧？

I was paying that first hospital bill. I didn't have insurance. I was paying that shit out of my pocket. Right?

他和马特认为太平洋绿洲公司应该负责，因为他是在他们当班时生病的。而且工伤保险会涵盖工作中生病导致的工资损失和医疗费用。于是乔尔和马特决定提出工伤赔偿申请。他们去了太平洋绿洲公司，史蒂夫把他们叫进了一个房间。

He and Matt felt like Pacific Oasis should be held accountable since he had gotten sick on their watch. And workers' compensation covers things like lost wages and hospital bills when employees get sick on the job. So Joel and Matt decide they are going to file a workers' compensation claim. They go down to Pacific Oasis, and Steve pulls them into a room.

房间里说你们根本没法证明这和工伤有关。我当时就愣住了，什么？

Room and said there's no way you guys can prove this is work related. And I said, what?

他基本上就是说任何因素都可能导致这个病。

He basically said anything could have caused this.

我们已经尽力了

We were trying our best

我们的工伤保险不会赔付这种情况。

Our workers' compensation policy is not going to pay for this.

我不是要证明什么。我只是想说这件事发生在一次火灾中。让我们先给他提供保障，等调查清楚再说。你明白我的意思吗？

I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm just trying to say that this happened to him on a fire. Let's get him covered right now until we can figure this out. You know what I mean?

但他们还是提出了索赔，最终工伤保险机构拒绝了他们的索赔。

But they filed the claim anyway, and ultimately, the workers' comp insurer denies their claim.

所以我基本上都是自掏腰包支付的。

So I was just using money out of out of pocket, basically.

哦，是啊。

Oh, yeah.

自掏腰包。

Out of pocket.

为什么他们无法证明这种关联？几乎不可能证明任何个体癌症病例源于野火烟雾。这某种程度上让整个消防行业得以免责。林业部门的工作人员告诉我，这就是历史上消防员未被配备口罩的原因之一。因为发放口罩本质上等于承认烟雾具有风险，可能导致某种长期疾病。

And why couldn't they prove this link? It's almost impossible to prove that any individual cancer case comes from wildfire smoke. And that sort of shields the whole firefighting industry from responsibility. People who work at the forest service have told me that this is one reason that firefighters historically have not been provided with masks. Because if you give somebody a mask, it's essentially acknowledging that smoke is risky and could cause some sort of long term illness.

我们不会给你提供保护性口罩，因为那等于承认这项工作存在危险。所以我们选择让你处于无保护状态。

We're not gonna give you a mask that could protect you because that would be an admission that you are in danger doing this work. So therefore, we were gonna leave you unprotected.

这正是举报者告诉我的情况——关于烟雾危害性始终存在着一种否认文化。因为一旦承认这点，就必须彻底改变灭火方式：政府可能需要增派人力让队员轮换避开烟雾，还要开始为各种健康问题提供保障。

This is what whistleblowers have been telling me, that there's just sort of been this culture of denial around how dangerous smoke is. Because what do you do once you acknowledge that? You have to really change how fires are fought. The government might start to have to provide more staffing so that people could take breaks from smoke, then they might have to start covering this whole range of health conditions.

好的。所以雇主们不承认工作与疾病之间存在关联。但工作与乔尔所患的癌症类型之间是否存在联系呢？我们对此有哪些确凿的了解？

Okay. So the employers don't acknowledge a link between the work and the illness here. But is there a link between the work and the type of cancer that Joel got? Like, what do we know about that for sure?

直到上世纪八十年代，人们还认为野火烟雾基本无害，就像篝火一样。但此后大量研究明确表明，野火烟雾与心血管疾病、肺部问题以及至少12种癌症相关。鉴于这些不断涌现的研究成果，国会在2022年强制要求林务局开始为与烟雾暴露关联性最强的十几种癌症提供工伤赔偿。但这套制度并不适用于另一大群体——那些通过私人公司承包林务局灭火合同的消防员们。

So until the nineteen eighties, people thought that wildfire smoke was basically benign like a campfire. But since then, there's been a lot of research that has shown pretty definitively that wildfire smoke is linked to cardiovascular issues, lung issues, and at least 12 kinds of cancers. So responding to this growing body of research in 2022, congress actually forced the Forest Service to start offering workers' compensation benefits for a list of more than a dozen cancers that are most strongly associated with smoke exposure. But that's not how it works for this large group of other firefighters working on contract for the Forest Service, but working for private companies.

也就是说，如果你直接受雇于联邦政府参与灭火工作，就能获得保障。但如果你受雇于为林务局服务的私营公司，就无法获得保障。

So, basically, if you work directly for the federal government fighting fires, you will get coverage. But if you work for a private company that works for the forest service, you will not get coverage.

完全正确。比如像乔尔这样的职业轨迹——为林务局工作后患上白血病，现在就不需要证明癌症来源。由于存在强关联性，会直接推定与灭火工作有关。但乔尔却必须证明癌症来源，这几乎是不可能的。

Exactly. So if you've had, you know, Joel's career and then you develop leukemia and you're working for the forest service, you now don't have to prove where your cancer came from. It's just assumed that it came from your work on fires because there's such a strong link. But for Joel, he would have to prove where his cancer came from, which is almost impossible.

这么说来，像乔尔这样的人完全是在孤军奋战，治疗费用都得自己承担。

So basically, for somebody like Joel, he is completely on his own, it sounds like, to cover the cost of his treatment.

是的。你可以想象这笔开销有多巨大。他们家为了支付医疗费几乎倾尽所有。

Yes. And as you can imagine, it was extremely expensive. The family spent basically everything they had trying to pay for this.

乔尔在整个过程中情况如何？治疗有效果吗？

And how was Joel doing through all of this? Was the treatment working?

化疗开始对抗癌症，但给乔尔的身体带来了巨大负担。他几乎无法移动，时刻处于疼痛中。他只能手脚并用爬进阁楼卧室。不过到了冬天，他的情况开始好转。

The chemotherapy starts to fight back the cancer, but it takes a tremendous physical toll on Joel. He could barely move. He was in pain all the time. He would crawl up to his attic bedroom on hands and knees. By the winter though, he started to get better.

他的癌症进入缓解期，体力也开始逐渐恢复。他和父亲一起外出尝试像从前那样徒步旅行。起初他只能蹒跚迈步，但渐渐地，他找回了些许过去的自己。听起来他战胜了病魔，我是说进入了缓解期。

His cancer went into remission and he started recovering a little bit of strength. He went out with his father to try to go on a hike like he used to do with him. And at first, he could only take these sort of stuttering steps, but little by little, he was able to recover a little bit of of who he had been. It sounds like he beat the odds. I mean, went into remission.

医生们谨慎地解释过癌症随时可能复发，而且经常如此。如果复发，仅靠化疗将不够，他必须接受骨髓移植。但当春天医生批准后，乔尔又回到了高中毕业后的那种迷茫状态，他完全不知道该怎么办。

His doctors were very careful to explain that the cancer could come back at any time and it often does. And if it did come back, chemotherapy wouldn't be enough. He would have to have a bone marrow transplant. But after Joel got the sign off from his doctors in the spring, he sort of went back to that place of aimlessness that he had been in after graduating high school. He didn't quite know what to do.

他感到漂泊无依，思绪又回到了救火的日子。他开始幻想：如果我回到那里会怎样？

He felt adrift and his mind started drifting back to fighting fires. He started sort of fantasizing about, like, what if I went back there?

他想回到火线上去。

He wanted to go back to the line.

他想回到火线。那里有他的朋友，也是开始赚钱偿还债务的途径。嗯。乔尔对最后一次救火经历耿耿于怀，他生病了无法继续，这在他心中确实是一次失败。

He wanted to go back to the line. It's where his friends It's a way to start making money to pay off his debts. Mhmm. And Joel is very hung up on that last fire that he fought and how he got sick and he wasn't able to to keep going. He really sees that as a defeat.

他在很多方面表示，希望通过重返火线来救赎自己。

And in a lot of ways, he says he wants to redeem himself by getting back out on the fire line.

当然，我现在充满干劲。我能去灭火，但能坚持十四天吗？我不知道。大概会拼到再次倒下吧。

Sure. I'm motivated. I can go do a fire, but can I do a fourteen day run? I don't know. Probably try till I die again.

你知道的，这就是那种情况。他

You know, that's one of those things. He

真的去找史蒂夫要回工作了。史蒂夫对他说，你疯了吗？你觉得是消防工作让你得了这种癌症。你还要回去。这不是在玩命吗？

actually went and asked Steve for his job back. And Steve told him, are you crazy? You're thinking that firefighting gave you this cancer. You're gonna go back. Isn't that tempting fate?

所以史蒂夫不肯雇他。他在本地找不到工作。于是买了张票去阿拉斯加，那里有更多联邦森林消防的工作机会。哇。而马特拼命想让乔尔做任何消防以外的工作。

So Steve wouldn't hire him. He couldn't get a job locally. So he bought a ticket to go to Alaska where there are a lot more federal wildland firefighting jobs. Wow. And Matt desperately wants Joel to do any kind of work besides firefighting.

但他也知道如果逼得太紧，可能会把乔尔推远。所以他正在走这条非常微妙的钢丝。

But he also knows that if he pushes too hard, he could alienate Joel. So he's walking this really fine line.

你知道，所有人都在说我疯了，但我不在乎别人怎么想。说到底，这就是我唯一知道的事。

You know, everybody's telling me I'm insane, but I don't care what anybody thinks. Like at the end of the day, it's just all, all I know.

他这种癌症非常凶险，预后情况不好。在他心里，自己很可能还是会死于这种癌症。

His kind of cancer is very aggressive. It doesn't have a great prognosis. In his mind, he is likely still to die from this cancer.

如果我的人生只剩一年，我要用这最后一年做些自己喜欢的事，对吧？反正伤害已经造成了，

If I got if I had a year left in my life, I'm gonna do the last year doing some shit I'd enjoy, right? I mean, the damage is already done,

对吧？不。

right? No.

是啊。哦，对。我是说，现在回头已经太迟了。真该死。

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's too late to turn back. I mean, shit.

他觉得现在所做的一切都像是借来的时间。如果二十多岁就会死去，他希望能继续坚持下去，继续做那个坚强的消防员。

He feels like everything he's doing now is just sort of borrowed time. And if he ends up dying in his twenties, he wants to just keep going and keep being that strong firefighter.

让我深受触动的是，世上永远会有乔尔这样的人。永远有人需要这类工作，有人想做这类工作，也永远有行业需要这些螺丝钉。

It really strikes me that there will always be a Joel. There will always be people who need this kind of work, who wanna do this kind of work, and an industry that needs joles.

对吧？确实如此。现在有数万名野外消防员。随着火灾季节延长、火势愈发猛烈，政府越来越依赖乔尔这样的消防员。人们年轻时入行，是真心想做这份工作。

Right? It's true. There are tens of thousands of wildland firefighters. And as wildfire season grows longer and the fires grow more intense, The government is increasingly turning to firefighters like Joel, and people get into this work young. They really wanna do it.

等他们病倒了，这个行业就会继续运转，永远会有年轻人前赴后继地顶替上来。

And when they get sick, the industry just sort of moves on, and there's always gonna be another young person to come and replace them.

汉娜，非常感谢你。谢谢你，瑞秋。在汉娜发表这篇调查系列的第一篇报道后不久，国会就举行了监督听证会，引用了她的报道，并向该机构施压要求其做出改变。不久之后，该机构确实做出了改变，取消了长达数十年的口罩禁令，并宣布将为所有消防员提供口罩并鼓励他们使用。目前尚未宣布将工人赔偿范围扩大到合同消防员的计划。

Hannah, thank you so much. Thank you, Rachel. Not long after Hannah published the first story in this investigative series, Congress held oversight hearings citing her reporting and pressured the agency to make changes. And soon after, it did, reversing its decades long ban on masks and announcing it will provide masks to all of its firefighters and encourage them to use them. No plans have been announced to extend worker compensation coverage to contract firefighters.

我们马上回来。

We'll be right back.

如果你对这个既充满绝望又充满希望的时刻感到困惑，我想说我理解你。我是《纽约时报》观点的埃兹拉·克莱因，也是《埃兹拉·克莱因秀》的主持人。对我来说，驱散这种困惑感的最佳方式是与那些有想法和框架的人进行交流。我们有很多话题可以讨论。你可以在任何收听播客的地方找到《埃兹拉·克莱因秀》。

If you find yourself bewildered by this moment where there's so much reason for despair and so much reason to hope all at the same time, let me say I hear you. I'm Ezra Klein from New York Times Opinion, host of the Ezra Klein Show. And for me, the best way to beat back that bewildered feeling is to talk it out with the people who have ideas and frameworks for making sense of it. There is going to be plenty to talk about. You can find the Ezra Klein show wherever you get your podcasts.

以下是今天你还需要知道的消息。牙买加总理安德鲁·霍尔尼斯下令强制疏散，并发布了严峻的安全警告，因为飓风梅丽莎以每小时175英里的风速和足以降下近三英尺降雨的湿气，于周一逼近该国及其280万人口。预计周一晚些时候，牙买加将出现危险的风暴、灾难性洪水以及高达13英尺的风暴潮，远早于飓风预计周二早上的登陆。今天的节目由尼娜·费尔德曼、杰斯·钟和戴安娜·温制作，由德文·泰勒编辑。

Here's what else you need to know today. Prime minister Andrew Holness of Jamaica ordered mandatory evacuations and issued dire safety warnings as hurricane Melissa, with winds of a 175 miles per hour and enough moisture to drop nearly three feet of rain, churned towards his country and its 2,800,000 people on Monday. Dangerous winds, catastrophic flooding, and a storm surge as high as 13 feet were expected in Jamaica as soon as Monday night, long before the hurricane's expected landfall on Tuesday morning. Today's episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Jess Chung, and Diana Wynn. It was edited by Devin Taylor.

音乐由玛丽安·洛萨诺和艾丽西亚·拜图创作，由艾丽莎·莫克斯利负责技术制作。以上就是今天的《每日新闻》。我是瑞秋·艾布拉姆斯。明天见。

Contains music by Marianne Lozano and Alicia Baitu, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. That's it for The Daily. I'm Rachel Abrams. See you tomorrow.