But when I looked outside of the United States, I found that basically every other country with a major wildfire season is now giving crews masks to protect against smoke. And they have not seen an increase in heat stroke. Firefighters are not collapsing because they’re getting too hot. They basically just take off the mask if they’re starting to overheat.

My sources at the Forest Service told me what’s really going on here is a fear of admitting how dangerous smoke is. They said if the Forest Service were to acknowledge how risky it is to work in smoke, the agency might have to start taking on a lot of extra costs. It might have to start paying for more health care. Or hiring more firefighters so that workers could take breaks. And it could also just become harder to recruit for these jobs that are already pretty grueling and low-paying.

Seems the orphan crushing machine is working as designed.