What happens when the people we depend on to keep us safe are working in buildings that may be putting their own health at risk?

In this episode of Moore Than Politics, State Senator Michael Moore sits down with filmmaker Tommy J. Dwyer and Jason Burns, executive director of the Last Call Foundation and a Fall River firefighter, to discuss the documentary Burning Down the House and the often unseen conditions inside fire stations across Massachusetts.

The conversation takes listeners inside aging and deteriorating firehouses and explores the challenges of securing funding for desperately needed repairs and replacements. Dwire and Burns explain why the issue isn't simply about making fire stations more comfortable—it's about protecting firefighters from diesel exhaust, contaminants, cancer risks and other hazards they can be exposed to long after the fire is out.

They also discuss the changing health risks of firefighting, including PFAS in protective gear, the emotional toll of responding to traumatic calls, mental health and substance abuse, and the difficulty firefighters can face when they return to the station and are expected to simply move on to the next call.

Burning Down the House was created to give the public a look behind firehouse doors—and to start a larger conversation about what communities can do to protect the people who protect them.

Burnin’ Down the House is a conversation about firefighters, public safety, health, funding and the conditions most of us never see inside our local fire stations.