Walking 161 miles in support of firefighter health
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Minnesota firefighters Doug Foote and Kyle Bode completed a 161-mile walk from Duluth to St. Paul Sunday to raise funds for MnFIRE, a nonprofit working to keep firefighters healthy across the state.
During the walk, Foote and Bode also educated other firefighters about health resources MnFire provides that were made possible by the Hometown Heroes Assistance Program, passed by the Legislature in 2021.
That program includes trauma counseling and an insurance policy that provides lump sums of up to $20,000 to Minnesota firefighters diagnosed with serious illnesses.
The National Fire Protection Administration has found that heart attacks have consistently been a leading cause of death for firefighters, accounting for 20 percent of on-duty deaths in 2024 and 48 percent of firefighter deaths overall. The NFPA says firefighters are also at particular risk for developing longer-term illnesses like cancer and PTSD.
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Foote said those resources are especially important in Minnesota, which is one of the top five states that relies most heavily on volunteer and part-time firefighters. Those firefighters don’t have the same benefits through their employer as career fighters.
“We have 20,000 volunteer firefighters, or about 90 percent of our firefighters in the state are volunteers. They had nothing like this,” Foote said. “It’s just incredible.”
Bode is a career firefighter and the health and wellness coordinator with the St. Paul Fire Department. He said his department is trying to be more “proactive” about firefighter health, rather than “reactive.” But smaller departments may not have health or wellness resources at all. MnFIRE “covers that gap,” he said.
Foote said raising money for firefighter health care is especially personal for him because he has two adult sons working as firefighters.
“Because of that family connection, the importance of this walk just hits home so much more,” he said.
Correction (Sept. 22, 2025): An earlier version of this story misspelled Kyle Bode’s name and misstated the number of miles actually walked by the firefighters. The story has been updated accordingly.
