Located about 12 miles east of Sacramento, California, Mather was established in 1918 as one of the nation's earliest military flight training schools. During World War II it became a major navigation and bombardier training center before serving under Strategic Air Command, later supporting the B-52 Stratofortress, KC-135 Stratotanker, and EC-135 throughout the Cold War. The base closed under the 1993 Base Realignment and Closure program, leaving behind hundreds of permanent buildings, hangars, fuel storage facilities, and fire stations built across more than seven decades of continuous expansion.
Mather AFB's job as a Strategic Air Command installation meant protecting a fleet of bombers, tankers, and training aircraft, and that mission left behind an unusually well-documented paper trail of how its firefighters trained. Air Force and EPA records identify a sequence of fire training areas spanning nearly the base's entire history. Fire Training Area 8 saw weekly exercises before 1945.
Fire Training Areas 9 and 10 picked up the mission from roughly 1945 to 1958. A later investigation traced one of those early sites to a more precise location, now designated Fire Training Area 10C. Fire Training Area 11 carried the load from 1958 until Mather closed in 1993, including a lined training pit added in the mid-1980s.
None of that training happened in isolation. A typical exercise meant an instructor briefing trainees before mixing foam concentrate, a crew charging hoses and working a live fuel fire, then the same people scrubbing down trucks and gear before servicing the tanks and delivery lines for whoever trained next. Certification wasn't a one-time box to check either, firefighters cycled back through these same areas repeatedly over the length of their careers.
Fire Protection Specialists and ARFF crew members bore the brunt of it, but instructors, trainees, civilian firefighters on base, and the staff who maintained the trucks and foam systems were all pulled into the same pattern of exposure.
PFAS chemicals in legacy AFFF have been linked to kidney cancer and testicular cancer among firefighters with this history of repeated contact. If you were part of that training pipeline at Mather AFB and were later diagnosed with one of these cancers, that connection is worth having reviewed.
Mather AFB's continuous expansion through World War II and the Cold War meant asbestos was widely built into its facilities for insulation and fire protection, a practice standard across military construction at the time. Materials from this era commonly included:
- pipe insulation
- boiler insulation
- steam distribution components
- HVAC insulation
- fireproof wallboard
- roofing materials
- vinyl floor tile and mastic
- ceiling tile
- gasket
- packing material
Occupations most likely to have disturbed these materials during maintenance and renovation work include:
- civil engineer
- construction worker
- electrician
- pipefitter
- HVAC mechanic
- boiler technician
- welder
- civilian maintenance employee
Mather Air Force Base operated from 1918 to 1993, meaning much of its infrastructure predates modern asbestos restrictions entirely. Mesothelioma and lung cancer are the two illnesses most closely tied to asbestos exposure, and both can take anywhere from 20 to 50 years to surface after fibers are first inhaled. A veteran or civilian worker diagnosed with either condition today may be looking at a connection that traces back decades. Contact our team to find out whether that history makes you eligible to file an asbestos claim.