As the seventh-largest fire department in Louisiana, St. Tammany Fire Protection District #1 has 220 employees in nine stations and responds to over 10,000 calls annually. The district serves the city of Slidell, located on the northeast shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and the surrounding unincorporated area of St. Tammany Parish. The city is the 16th most populous in Louisiana, with approximately 30,000 residents within the city limits and an additional 78,000 in the unincorporated area.
Having lost two employees due to fire-related cancers over the past six years, St. Tammany’s Fire Chief Chris Kaufmann is more committed than ever to ensuring the health and safety of his personnel. The district’s health and safety program mirrors his commitment by prioritizing cancer prevention and cardiovascular health. So, when Chief of Training and Safety Tim Harrison approached Chief Kaufmann with concerns about the amount of soot he was finding on his body and in his home, even after showering post-incident, it sparked considerable concern for the chief.
Kaufmann recalled their conversation: “Tim brought it to my attention, saying, ‘When I go home, even after I’ve showered at work, I go to bed, wake up the next morning, and I can wipe my arm and find soot. And even on my bed sheet, where I was lying, you can see soot.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
Chief Harrison had recently attended a conference where he saw a decontamination unit for firefighters and had also conducted his own research on the topic. Designed to help firefighters detoxify after exposure to smoke and other contaminants, a typical decon unit involves the use of an exercise bicycle inside an infrared sauna to induce sweating. Harrison asked Kaufmann if he could further investigate the benefits and costs of such a unit, and Kaufmann gave him the green light to proceed.
Initial investigation
After receiving approval from the fire chief, Harrison and his training team immediately got to work. They contacted Dr. Jeff Burgess, a physician and professor in the College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, who had conducted a study on the effectiveness of decon units for firefighters, working alongside members of the Tucson and Scottsdale fire departments.
Dr. Burgess attested that, although larger studies are needed, firefighters have anecdotally reported great benefits from using these decon units. The training team then reached out to the fire department staff who had participated in Burgess’s study, and all of them agreed that they no longer smelled like smoke at home. Another physician and a professor, both of whom were performing similar studies, confirmed the same findings.
[Watch next: Dr. Burgess on the Better Every Shift podcast]
Digging into the research
Shortly thereafter, Harrison attended FDIC, where he met with SaunaRay, the manufacturer of the saunas used for the decon units in the Burgess study. SaunaRay provided Harrison with all the relevant literature on the units, which was backed by the studies his team had just researched.
But not all research has been positive about the impacts of sauna-based decon, particularly early investigations into the technique. The IAFF, for example, stated in an August 2017 report that it does not support the use of saunas for post-exposure fire decontamination, citing several factors:
- The hot environment of saunas after fire suppression activities has the potential to increase dehydration, heat-related illnesses and other cardiac risk factors.
- Sauna use immediately after fire suppression activities has the potential to actually increase absorption.
- The science on sauna use is still too limited to determine if this increases excretion of chemicals in a significant way.
More recent research, however, has resulted in more positive findings. Occupational medicine physician Dr. Zeke McKinney has been studying sauna use among Saint Paul, Minnesota, firefighters for several years. Although his research was still underway as of September 2025, firefighters in his study stated that the saunas help alleviate the extreme stress of their jobs and were thus very beneficial. Similarly, in August 2025, United Diagnostic Services indicated that the health benefits of saunas in fire stations include cardiovascular support and circulation improvement, joint pain management, mental health and stress relief, enhanced muscle recovery and immune system support.
During IAFF’s “Fire Fighter Occupational Exposure Reduction: Best Practices and Intervention Workshop” in October 2023, Dr. Sara Jahnke, NDRI-USA, discussed the importance of individual preventive measures, such as using wipes, laundering gear in pairs, using saunas and donating plasma. Adopting these practices was deemed critical for firefighter safety. Specifically, she indicated that saunas were found to be beneficial, decreasing inflammation and oxidative stress, despite studies around them showing a non-significant decrease in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations after their use.
For now, while the fire service awaits definitive evidence, experts advise that saunas should be viewed as a potential supplement, not a substitute, for proven cancer-prevention measures.
Taking action
Chief Harrison and his team presented their findings to Chief Kaufmann, who was on board and entered St. Tammany’s first decon unit in the budget. Once approval was obtained from the Board of Commissioners, the district proceeded with the purchase of its first SaunaRay decon unit at a cost of approximately $13,000.
SaunaRay’s four-bike decon unit is an infrared, toxin-free, medical-grade sauna that comes with four exercise bikes specifically designed not to off-gas in the heat. With a maximum temperature of 130 degrees F, the sauna operates at safe temperatures and is intended for no longer than 15 minutes of use at a time. This size sauna, which can easily accommodate an entire engine company at once, works well for the district. Each unit can be assembled in about an hour and requires access to a 240V electrical source. The exercise bikes are assembled outside the unit and then brought in.
The district installed the new decon unit on-site at the Training Academy in October 2023. This location was selected due to the frequency of live-fire training that occurs as part of the district’s continuing education program and scheduled drills. Training staff/adjunct instructors may fight fire in training drills as often as three times each day.
In 2025, the Board of Commissioners approved the purchase and installation of two additional SaunaRay decon units at Stations 13 and 16.
Space constraints were the most important consideration as not all fire stations within the district can accommodate the sauna’s 6 x 8 x 6.5-foot footprint. The distribution of the units allows employees from throughout the district to schedule rotations around live-fire training evolutions, while maintaining coverage of their assigned area.
The outcome
Although the SaunaRay decon units serve a dual purpose — fitness and detoxification — the primary reason they were purchased was for decontamination. So far, the engine companies that have used the units at the Training Academy have given nothing but positive feedback to the training staff. The fact that using the unit is voluntary means no one is intimidated by doing so. If they use it, it’s because they are concerned about their exposure to contaminants and want to improve their health.
“The Training Academy has not stopped using the decon unit since we put it in place,” Kaufmann noted. “The employees swear by it. I’ve seen myself where they come out of the sauna and you can just wipe their bodies, their skin, and the soot is just coming off on a white towel. I didn’t need to see more than that to know this is real. And as fire chief, I should be doing everything I can do — in my authority, in my position — for their well-being and safety.”
As for unit cleaning and maintenance, St. Tammany adheres to SaunaRay’s guidelines and recommendations. Anyone who uses the unit is expected to clean it after use, just as they would any other piece of equipment.
So far, Chief Harrison has been satisfied with the manufacturer’s customer service and response time for the one small issue that has arisen and reports no complaints.
To develop key metrics, the district has recently begun tracking usage data to understand who is using the units, as well as how often they are being used and for what purposes. QL readers have been installed on each unit, ideally allowing data to be collected and evaluated over 5 years, 10 years and so on. The district aims to demonstrate that its preventive efforts are yielding the intended results and hopes its efforts will promote positive change throughout the fire service.
St. Tammany does not currently perform targeted testing to quantify the benefits of the decon units. However, options such as urinalysis to measure hydroxylated metabolites of PAHs in urine have been discussed and are under consideration.
Tips for replication
Chiefs Kaufmann and Harrison shared several tips for other departments interested in taking similar steps:
- Do your due diligence — conduct the necessary research, talk to the experts and make sure you understand what you’re getting into.
- Build the cost of the decon unit into your budget and develop a purchasing strategy.
- Don’t rely solely on the decon unit for firefighter detoxification. Instead, incorporate the decon unit into the larger framework of your health and safety program.
- Embrace a culture of continuous improvement — be open to new innovations and technologies.
Chief Harrison underscored the power of taking the simple first step of asking for information: “Don’t be afraid to ask. I was shocked at how many people were so willing to reach out and help. I mean, we could have thought ‘[Dr. Burgess] is never gonna call us back,’ but an email goes a long way, a phone call goes a long way, and more people will be willing to help than you think.”
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