Earlier this year, two long-time Houston County firefighters both passed away from pancreatic cancer.
Warner Robins Councilman, Mike Davis, served the city fire department for over three decades.
Chief Jimmy Williams began working with the county fire department back in 1982.
Williams was still serving Houston County as the fire chief when pancreatic cancer claimed his life in February. Davis passed away just a month before.
13 Investigates the link physicians says exists between firefighters and
Outside the Macon-Bibb Fire Department headquarters, firemen practice their decontamination routines.
Inside the fire station, Captain Akwasi Maru is reading the book he wrote about the risks firefighters face in the work place, one of which is personal.
"I never thought it would happen to me. It was a life-changing event just to hear the doctor say I was diagnosed," says Maru.
In 2014, Maru was diagnosed with cancer. He didn't want to talk about what type of cancer he had, but called his diagnosis "devastating."
"We had an enemy being fire. Now, one of our biggest enemies is cancer," says Maru.
Firefighters are frequently exposed to smoke, asbestos, and other chemicals. Does this make them more vulnerable to developing certain types of cancer?
Dr. Paul Dale, Chief of Surgical Oncology at Navicent Health in Macon, says, "Yes."
Dale cited a study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
From 2010 to 2015, NIOSH and the Center for Disease control studied nearly 30,000 firefighters in Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
They found higher rates of certain types of cancer among those firefighters than the general U.S. population. They included digestive, oral, respiratory, and urinary cancers.
Pancreatic cancer, which claimed the lives of Chief Williams and Mike Davis, does fall under the digestive cancer category.
"The answer as to why -- this, perhaps, may be linked to the carcinogens they are exposed to as they respond," says Dale.
While the research on this subject is still fairly new, it's made national headlines in recent years.
In 2018, President Trump signed the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act. It requires the CDC to maintain a national voluntary registry to help monitor types of cancer among firefighters.
In 2017, Georgia lawmakers passed House Bill 146 -- which provides fire fighters with a sum of money if diagnosed with cancer.
Dr. Dale says wearing masks and protective gear is crucial to keeping fire fighters protected, but sometimes it isn't enough.
Captain Maru says it's "likely," but not certain that his firefighting led to his cancer diagnosis, and although it's dangerous, he says it's what he's meant to be doing.
"I love being a firefighter, so it's one of the risks you have to take," says Maru.
Captain Maru says he is now cancer-free. If you'd like to order a copy of his book, click here.