About — Firewatch Health

How We Got Here

Born from a system that failed the people it was supposed to protect.

It started with a single case file. A 22-year career firefighter in Phoenix — three departments, two states — diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at 54. When his attorney tried to build a workers' comp case, they hit a wall. Records from his first department had been purged. The second department had no occupational health system. Exposure logs from a decade of structure fires didn't exist. The case was denied.

His story wasn't unique. Our founders — a physician, a career firefighter, and a health data engineer — had each seen it from different angles. Dr. Marcus Reid watched patients come in with diagnoses that had clearly been accumulating for years, with no medical history to fight back on. James Okafor, a retired battalion chief, had watched six members of his crew retire early due to preventable illness. The data was there — in fragments, in silos, in the wrong hands, or simply gone.

Firewatch Health was incorporated in 2023 with one organizing principle: every firefighter deserves a complete, longitudinal, private health record that belongs to them. Not to the department. Not to the insurer. To the person who ran into the building. That's what we're building. That's all we're building.

The Risks They Face

The job carries costs most people never see.

Understanding what firefighters are up against is why Firewatch Health exists. These aren't statistics — they're your crew.

Cancer

A 3× higher cancer risk — and decades of silence.

Modern structure fires burn synthetic materials that release benzene, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, and hundreds of other known carcinogens. Off-gassing continues through gear and clothing long after the fire is out.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies firefighting as a Group 1 human carcinogen. Yet most firefighters retire without ever receiving a structured cancer screening protocol.

"Firefighters are diagnosed with cancer at a rate 3× higher than the general population, with bladder and testicular cancers among the most elevated."

Cardiac Health

The leading cause of line-of-duty death isn't smoke.

Cardiovascular disease accounts for approximately 45% of all firefighter line-of-duty deaths — more than any other cause, including traumatic injury. The combination of extreme physical exertion, heat stress, and compressed air exposure creates a cardiac load unlike almost any other occupation.

Many of these deaths are predictable. The risk factors accumulate silently over a career, visible only in the pattern of annual fitness data that most departments never systematically collect or review.

"Sudden cardiac events kill more firefighters per year than fires, collapses, and vehicle accidents combined."

Mental Health

PTSD, burnout, and a culture that still says don't talk about it.

Studies consistently show that 30% of career firefighters meet clinical criteria for PTSD, and the firefighter suicide rate now exceeds line-of-duty deaths from fires. Yet the majority suffer in silence, fearing that seeking help will affect their career, their standing with their crew, or their fitness-for-duty status.

This is a structural problem. Access to truly private mental health support — where your department sees nothing — changes the calculation. When the risk of asking for help disappears, people start asking.

"More firefighters died by suicide in 2023 than from all line-of-duty injuries combined."

What We Stand For

Our Values

Every decision we make — in product, in policy, in how we grow — runs through these four commitments.

Privacy First

Your health data is yours. We built the architecture before the product, ensuring that no employer, insurer, or department can access individual records.

Firefighter-Built

Our platform is designed with active and retired firefighters at every stage — from clinical advisory to UX testing to our board of advisors.

Evidence-Based

Every health alert, every screening protocol, every recommendation is grounded in peer-reviewed research and clinical best practice — not wellness trends.

Human-Centered

Health data has no value if it doesn't reach the person who needs it. We build for clarity, dignity, and action — not dashboards for their own sake.

The People Behind the Platform

We built this because we've seen what happens without it.

Our founding team brings together medicine, engineering, and a combined 40 years of experience in the fire service.

Dr. Marcus Reid

Chief Medical Officer

Occupational medicine physician with 18 years specializing in firefighter health. Former medical director for the Phoenix Fire Department. Led development of Firewatch's clinical screening protocols.

Sarah Chen

VP of Engineering

Previously led health data infrastructure at two Fortune 500 health systems. Designed Firewatch's zero-trust data architecture and HIPAA compliance framework from the ground up.

James Okafor

Firefighter Liaison

Retired Battalion Chief with 22 years of service in three states. Co-founded Firewatch after watching six crew members retire early due to preventable illness. Leads department partnerships nationwide.

This Is Bigger Than a Business.