More than two years after returning from Iraq, Firefighter Shane Shifflett finally received the justice he sought when he was awarded $15,000 in health benefits from his former employer, WSI Fire, in March.
After battling a maintenance facility fire while stationed in Mosul on Nov. 2, 2004, Shifflett said he suffered smoke inhalation and an upper respiratory infection and damage to the inner lining of his lungs.
In July 2004, he began a year-long $98,000 contract with WSI Fire, an Arlington, Va.-based division of Wackenhut Corp. that provides security and firefighting services to the government. But after sustaining those injures, he was forced to forgo the remainder of his contract and pay for plane ticket back to his home in Las Cruces, N.M.
Shifflett, who is now a firefighter with the Department of Defense in Texarkana, Texas, said looking back on the experience, the money was not worth the risk.
"The way I thought about it was, 'It's all about the money.' When I got there I found out it wasn't all it was cracked up to be," he said. "It's not about the money anymore; my family comes first now."
Shifflett has been married for five years to his wife, Denise. They have two children, a three-year-old boy and an eight-month-old girl. He also has a 16-year-old son who lives in Winchester, Va. and is considering a career in the fire service.
Upon returning from Iraq, Shifflett filed a formal complaint with the Department of Labor, citing the lack of equipment as the main reason he was injured in the fire. He said his medical expenses totaled close to $5,000.
He said between him and the 16 other firefighters stationed with him in Mosul, there were only three sets of turnout gear. Numerous phone calls seeking comment from WSI Fire officials were not returned.
"The biggest part of it was the gear," he said. "(WSI) just got into it too quick before they had all of the resources they needed. I heard the conditions over there are pretty good now."
He also so that his SCBA mask was one size two big and that after his gloves were destroyed by acid he was forced to use a pair of gardening gloves.
"You did what you could," he said. "We gave measurements before we left for Iraq, but that gear never showed up.
"Some of us tried to bring our own gear, but they made us leave it at the airport when we checked in."
Fellow Iraq Firefighter Bryan Malis echoed his sentiments, "It was just unsafe working conditions, I never had my own set of turnouts and the ones I did have were five sizes too big."
"We had a lot of guys leave as soon as we got off of the plane in Bagdad," Shifflett said. "Everyone was trying to come home because of the conditions."
He said the company received a lot of medical calls and some brush fires, but that the Nov. 2 facility fire was by far the worst. While battling the blaze, a batch of chemicals burned, which he attributes to his medical problems. He said the type of chemical he was exposed to was never determined.
For close to five months after the incident, he said he was unable to pass a firefighter physical. It was a tough time for the 35-year-old Shifflett, who began his career as an Explorer with the Hagerstown, Md. Fire Department at the age of 13 and became a firefighter when he turned 16.
According to Shifflett, it was never about the money, but the fact that he was told it couldn't be done.
"I thought there was no chance" of winning against WSI, he said. "Everyone told me I had no chance."
Shifflett said it was tough to find a lawyer who would handle his case. "I lost count of how many lawyers I contacted," he said. "I had to fax lawyer after lawyer details on the fire we worked on."
He also said that once he found a lawyer -- David Linker of Freedman and Lorry, P.C. -- it was difficult to get doctors to sign off on anything since WSI is a big company.
Malis, who now suffers from Chronic Bronchitis, said a lack of resources has kept him from filing a complaint. "If I had the money, I'd bring them to court," he said.
In the end, Administrative Law Judge Daniel A. Sarno ruled in favor of awarding benefits to Shifflett under the Defense Base Act, which was established in 1942 to cover workers on military bases outside the United States.
Shifflett, who is now in perfect health, believes his victory will encourage other former Iraq firefighters to file complaints against companies such as WSI and KBR, a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation.
"I'm sure it will help," he said. "Before, from reading the forums on Firehouse.com, no one was getting any results. Hopefully they will see this and know they have a chance."
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