- Author
-
Fahy, R. F.
|
LeBlanc, P. R.
|
Molis, J. L.
- Title
- Firefighter Fatalities in the United States 2006 and What's Changed Over the Past 30 Years?
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Keywords
-
fire fighters
|
fire fatalities
|
fire statistics
|
health hazards
|
cardiac effects
|
death
|
injuries
|
medical services
|
stress (physiology)
- Abstract
- In 2006, a total of 89 on-duty firefighter deaths occurred in the U.S. This is a slight increase over the 87 firefighter fatalities that occurred in 2005. It was the second consecutive year, and the fifth out of the last 10 years, that the total number of deaths has been below 100. The largest share of deaths (38 deaths) occurred on the fire ground. Stress, exertion, and other medical-related issues, which usually result in heart attacks or other sudden cardiac events, continued to be the leading cause of fatal injury. Of the 38 stress-related fatalities in 2006, 34 (38%) were classified as sudden cardiac deaths. NFPA has published many articles on firefighter deaths over the years, but in 1977 a concentrated effort was made to identify all on-duty fatalities that had occurred in the previous year. Since then, NFPA has conducted an annual comprehensive study of on-duty deaths in the U.S. This marks the 30th year of this study, and provides a good opportunity to see how things have -- and, maybe, have not -- changed over the 30 years.The average number of on-duty firefighter deaths to occur annually has dropped by one third over the past 30 years. In the late 1970's, an average of 151 firefighters were killed on duty annually. By the 1990's, that average had dropped to 97 deaths per year. So far in this first decade of the 21st century, the annual average has held steady at 99 deaths per year. There have been four years with firefighter death tolls below 90. In 2006, 89 firefighters died as a result of on-duty injuries.