Episode description

There are more than 30,000 people who fight wildfires in the U.S, and about 400 firefighters have died on the job over the last two decades. As fire seasons get longer and longer and fires become more devastating, the physical and mental toll on firefighters themselves is also growing.

• Brent Ruby is a professor at the University of Montana and the director of the Montana Center for Work Physiology and Exercise Metabolism

• Dan Cottrell is the training foreman at the Missoula Smokejumper Base.

• Nelda St. Claire is a former National Critical Incident Stress Program Manager for the Bureau of Land Management