PROVIDENCE — The city is moving ahead with a plan that would award firefighters who develop cancer while on the job automatic accidental disability pensions, assuming they can prove that they don’t smoke, abuse alcohol or do drugs.

If it passes the City Council, the plan would give firefighters with cancer access to the generous benefits of accidental disability pensions, which give retirees an annual sum equal to two-thirds of the average of their three highest years’ salaries — tax-free.

Firefighters, the fire chief and the fire union argued, are exposed to numerous carcinogens and have greater risk of developing cancers of the blood, lung, lymphatic and skin than the rest of the population.

Fire Chief George S. Farrell has leukemia, though he proudly notes that he has not missed a day of work since he was diagnosed last summer.

“I’m very pleased with what we have before us today. I know it’s a workable document and the people who are currently on the Fire Department serving with cancer have been waiting a long time to see this done.”

Six other active firefighters have cancer, though all are not working and are on injured-on-duty status awaiting passage of the ordinance before their retirements are processed.

The firefighter’s union, Local 799 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, has been pushing for such a benefit for some time, even using the publicity surrounding the protest of a national security drill in September to lobby for it. But the city has long resisted elements of the proposal, and dueling versions had at various times been pushed by the union and Mayor David N. Cicilline.

In the last month, however, the issue went quickly from back burner to front and center.

“This has been a long-standing problem. Frankly, I was amazed at the ability of both of the [Finance and Ordinance] Committee chairmen to put their noses to the grindstone and get this done so quickly,” said Paul Doughty, president of the union, calling the final product a compromise that all could live with.

Members of the City Council’s Finance and Ordinance committees, which met jointly last night, approved the ordinance unanimously. It will now go before the full 15-member council, with passage likely.

Cicilline’s chief of adminstration, Richard I. Kerbel, said the mayor supports the proposed ordinance.

The ordinance establishes the presumption that any active-duty firefighter who is diagnosed with cancer developed the cancer as a result of the job, with some exceptions.

The cancer must be diagnosed while the firefighter is employed by the city or within three years of retirement. Firefighters must have at least one year on the job to be eligible and must be certified as cancer-free when they are hired.

Firefighters would have to submit to annual physical exams administered by doctors hired by the city to prove that they do not use tobacco products, abuse alcohol or use illegal drugs. They would also have to sign affidavits stating that they have not used those substances. Firefighters who use those substances now have a clean slate going forward, but will have to prove on their next annual physical that they are not using them anymore.

If a firefighter claims to have cancer, that claim would have to be verified by three oncologists hired by the city.

The city would have the right to challenge that the cancer was the result of on-the-job activities and could rescind the pension if the pensioner doesn’t file annual reports to the city to prove their continued disability.

If the type of cancer found is known to be caused by the abuse of alcohol, the pensioner would also not qualify.

Deleted from early versions was a requirement that firefighters maintain a certain body mass, said council staffer Yvonne Graf, who was widely credited with putting together much of the agreement. The union had fought its inclusion and eventually it was removed.

“A body mass index is very hard to assess,” she said.

If they want to take advantage of the ordinance, firefighters would also have to participate in whatever health and wellness programs the Fire Department chooses to offer now and in the future.

City Council Finance Committee chairman John J. Igliozzi said the ordinance can also serve as an entrée to creating a healthier Fire Department — an avenue to ensure that firefighters don’t smoke or abuse alcohol or drugs, and participate in wellness programs.

“The City of Providence has a duty to provide a certain safety net,” Igliozzi said.

The ordinance will come before the council next Thursday.

dbarbari@projo.com