Barbara Boxer: “It basically recognizes the fact that our firefighters are our heroes. We certainly learned that. Every American learned…”

“It basically recognizes the fact that our firefighters are our heroes. We certainly learned that. Every American learned that after 9/11. Their health has been affected and impacted. We learned we need to do more to monitor their health. Right now, we have 12,000 brave firefighters frantically working with the California Department of Forestry, the U.S. Forest Service, the California Highway Patrol, the Red Cross, and FEMA to contain these fires in terrible conditions. Firefighters are not only from California, but they are from Nevada and Arizona. Other help is on the way from other States. I want to show you a photo of some of the conditions these firefighters are working in at this point. This is the Simi Valley, where you can see the firefighters, how strong they are, and yet how they look so small in front of this unbelievable blaze they are trying to contain. This is in San Diego. You can see the incredible black, deadly smoke here. That is filled with toxins and is right over the hill from where they are standing. Many of these firefighters are living in fire camps, spending 24 hours a day in proximity to the smoke from the fires.”