SPOKANE, Wash. — Doug Bacon missed the funeral of a fellow Spokane firefighter because he was in treatment for throat cancer – the same illness that had just killed his friend and co-worker.

A third Spokane firefighter who joined the department with Bacon in the 1970s also has been diagnosed with throat cancer.

“It’s to the point we’re trying to figure out which fire we were all on together,” said Bacon, 59, who survived his cancer and returned to the job in mid-2006.

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