Ex-Firefighter Hoping to Provide Safety Net for Disabled Co-Workers

For 21 years Bob Greenwell was a firefighter. Now he makes lapel buttons in his La Habra garage, selling them at a 50-cent profit each.

That’s how Greenwell, 56, is raising money for what he dreams will be an organization devoted to helping disabled firefighters--such as himself--whether their disability is permanent or temporary. It’s called Disabled Firefighters of California.

Although some California fire departments have organizations that try to help those who are injured in the line of duty, Greenwell says a statewide agency is needed to help firefighters forced off the job by crippling injuries.

“There will always be men getting hurt,” he said. “Some will end up like me.”

Firefighting is statistically one of the most dangerous occupations in the country and one that is becoming even more dangerous as more emergencies involve dangerous chemicals.

Steve Critchfield, president of the Santa Ana Firemen’s Benevolent Assn., estimated that 30% to 40% of Santa Ana’s firefighters are forced to retire early because of on-duty injuries.

“Almost every fireman will lose time in (his) career due to a disability,” Critchfield said.

Having suffered a variety of ailments, from pulled muscles to lung cancer, Greenwell was forced to retire in 1978 after several injuries in the line of duty. Today he lives in a Fullerton apartment on an $1,100 monthly retirement pension and what he considers to be borrowed time.

“I’ve had everything except an autopsy,” the former battalion chief said.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Greenwell has endured lung cancer and has twice survived pneumonia. He said he had recovered from back problems in 1968 and 1969 but returned to work only to get lead poisoning as a result of a toxic fire in La Habra in 1972.

“My hands were too weak to even press the button on the microphone,” he said. He recovered after eight months in therapy at the Veterans Administration medical center in Long Beach and later became one of the county’s first paramedics.

Then in 1976 an X-ray revealed a malignant tumor in his lung that had to be removed. Again he recovered and returned to work--in pain from the surgery--as a fire marshal. He insisted that he could still do his job despite the pain. But he was ordered to retire.

“(Greenwell) is a living example” of the dangers that firemen can be exposed to, said La Habra Battalion Chief Harold Gochenouer. “Ever since firemen have fought fires they have been in a hostile environment. . . . No one can say if a building is safe or not when it’s on fire.”

Today Greenwell lives with his 81-pound, 78-year-old mother, Mary Horvath, who nursed him through those injuries and other painful days. He is divorced and has four grown children but declines any financial help from them.

He is driven by a desire to help those who stuck by him in his darkest hours.

“I want to do this because these guys helped me out,” he said, explaining that colleagues voluntarily came to his house when he had lead poisoning and was growing progressively weaker to do everything from making coffee to painting the house. “I’ve had as many as 17 firemen in my house on a single day.”

But money--or the lack of it--still stands between Greenwell and the realization of his dream. The foundation’s checking account contains a mere $100 so far: enough to cover a $75 fee to file with the secretary of state for status as a nonprofit organization but not enough for legal fees to get the documents drawn up.

With or without funds, Greenwell presses on with the foundation. Under the oversight of an eight-member board of directors--consisting mostly of other disabled firemen--he hopes to have a small staff to handle aid requests and accept donations. But he admits that “a lot of rough edges have to be worked out” before the foundation can launch its mission.

The need for that mission, however, seems clear.

Don Hurdle, public relations director of Greenwell’s organization, found in researching the subject that pension allowances average $750 a month for California firefighters. If retirees have to pay an average $180 to $200 a month in medical bills, “it takes a substantial chunk from their retirement,” he said.

Pension and health plans vary from city to city, said Critchfield of the Santa Ana Firemen’s Benevolent Assn., an organization that gives emergency loans to injured firemen. But, he added, most cities offer bare-bones protection.

“Probably 95% to 97% of cities have no health coverage after retirement,” he said. Most firefighters retire on the Public Employees Retirement System, a state fund to which most public employees periodically contribute part of their income. For example, Greenwell contributed 9% of his gross income through Fullerton’s PERS plan.

Regularly, firefighters on disability run out of worker’s compensation benefits before completing a sick leave, Critchfield said, citing the example of a fellow fireman who has been on leave for one year but whose disability payments ran out six months ago.

Blue Cross paid for 80% of Greenwell’s staggering medical bills, but he is still paying the rest. In 1983 alone the bills ran to $43,000, and in 1982 they amounted to $38,000. He has never wanted to add up the total bill.

Beside raising money, Greenwell’s foundation would offer moral support to firefighters having trouble adjusting to their disabilities. Through counseling, the foundation would encourage firefighters to try new employment opportunities.

Greenwell says he knows firefighters who have been seriously hurt but are still capable of going back to work. He said he knows of one firefighter still working with a pacemaker.

Greenwell, for one, believes he can still be a fire marshal. He said firefighters he has talked with support the concept underlying the foundation.

“The idea of having something to fall back on sounds good to them,” he said, “because somewhere down the road they may need it.”