Tonko stressed that a new application period for federal grants opened on May 19 and closes on June 22. “It’s a short window,” said Natalie Lincoln, who is Tonko’s grants director.

U.S. Forest Service firefighter Alan Gudino, right, shields his face while battling the Madre fire in San Luis Obispo County in July. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) The U.S. Forest Service has ...

The federal government will now allow its firefighters to mask up — upending a decades-long policy that had left them exposed to toxic flurries of illness-inducing wildfire smoke. The U.S. Forest ...

The U.S. Forest Service will begin providing wildfire crews with masks to protect against smoke, reversing a decades-long policy banning protective gear after The New York Times spotlighted severe ...

The reversal of a decades-old U.S. Forest Service policy means that federal wildland firefighters can now mask up if they want to — something Washington’s state wildland firefighters have been able to ...

The U.S. Forest Service has fought decades of efforts to better protect its crews — sending them into smoke without masks or warnings about the risks. Southwest Oregon August 2018 Northern California ...

The U.S. Forest Service has announced it is reversing a ban on federal firefighters wearing masks, and will give crews protective N95s as they battle increasingly intense fires across the nation. For ...