- Author
- Duval, R. F. | Foley, S. N.
- Title
- Supermarket Fire Phoenix, Arizona, March 14, 2001. NFPA Fire Investigations Report.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Report
- NFPA Fire Investigations Report, 2002, 52 p.
- Distribution
- AVAILABLE FROM: NFPA Fire Investigations Department (NFPA), 1 Batterymarch Park, Quincy, MA 02269-9101. Telephone: 617-984-7263; Fax: 617-984-7110, Email: investigations@nfpa.org Website: http://www.nfpa.org
- Keywords
- building fires | shopping centers | fire investigations | combustibles | fire spread | fire fighters | fire fighting | death | debris | rescue | rescue operations | fire fatalities
- Abstract
- On September 11, 2001, the fire department of New York City suffered the most catastrophic loss of firefighters in U.S. history, when 340 firefighters, two paramedics and a chaplain were killed in the collapses of the twin towers at the World Trade Center. The death toll in that one incident eclipses the 99 firefighter fatalities that occurred in all other on-duty circumstances throughout the U.S. in 2001. More firefighters were killed on September 11th than died at structure fires over the previous 11 years. More full-time, career firefighters were killed in one day than were killed on-duty over the previous 20 years. The actions of the firefighters killed that day will be chronicled elsewhere, in the fire service and general press. This article will focus on the non-World Trade Center fatalities, not with the intention of minimizing those losses, but rather to remind us of the types of fatal situations that occur each year. Each year, NFPA collects data on all firefighter fatalities in the U.S. that resulted from injuries or illnesses that occurred while the victims were on-duty. The victims include, besides members of local career and volunteer fire departments, those seasonal and full-time employees of state and federal agencies who have fire suppression responsibilities as part of their job description, prison inmates serving on firefighting crews, military personnel performing assigned fire suppression activities, civilian firefighters working at military installations and members of industrial fire brigades.In 2001, a total of 439 on-duty firefighter deaths occurred in the U.S. -- 340 at the World Trade Center and 99 elsewhere throughout the year. This compares to the 103 firefighter fatalities that occurred in 2000.1 (Figure 1 shows firefighter deaths for the years 1977 through 2001.) In addition to the World Trade Center, there were seven other multiple-fatality incidents. Four firefighters died when they were overrun at a wildland fire. Three firefighters were killed at a fire in a hardware store when an explosion caused a partial collapse of the building. Three died when their helicopter crashed during a maintenance check flight. In each of two separate dwelling fires, two firefighters were killed. Two firefighters drowned while trying to recover a body. And two contract pilots died when their air tankers crashed over a wildland fire. Analyses in this report will examine the types of duty associated with firefighter deaths, the cause and nature of fatal injuries to firefighters, and the ages of the firefighters who died. They will highlight deaths in incendiary or suspicious fires and in motor vehicle-related incidents.2 This year's article will also look at the trends in firefighter deaths at structure fires and will examine the role that the decrease in structure fires may have played in the drop in firefighter deaths over the past several years.