From the NFPA’s Firefighter Fatalities in the United States – 2016
Report highlights
- With 69 on-duty firefighter deaths in 2016, the annual total continued below average, with fewer than 70 deaths a year in five of the past six years.
- The 15 deaths on the fireground is the lowest total reported in the 40 years of this study.
- Sudden cardiac deaths and internal trauma accounted for the largest shares of the deaths (26 deaths each).
- The number of deaths of career firefighters was the lowest total ever reported (19 deaths).
Excerpts from Firehouse.com:
The National Fire Protection Association has released its annual report on firefighter fatalities in the United States, and a leading cause of on-duty deaths in the fire service remains cardiac issues despite those deaths hitting an all-time low in 2016.
Last year’s total of 69 on-duty deaths marked the fifth time in six years that the number was below 70, according to the NFPA’s 2016 Report.
The 26 deaths attributed to cardiac issues marked the fewest since the NFPA began this study in 1977, but it was still high enough to match internal trauma as a leading cause. Sudden cardiac death has consistently been the leading cause for on-duty deaths year in and year out in the NFPA’s study.
Of the 69 total deaths, 39 were volunteers, 19 were career firefighters, eight were employees of federal land management agencies, one was a contractor with a state land management agency, one was a member of an industrial fire brigade and one was a prison inmate.
“When NFPA began reporting on firefighter deaths 40 years ago, the annual average was close to 150 fatalities per year,” Rita Fahy, NFPA’s manager of fire databases and systems, said in a release. “Over the past five years (between 2012 and 2016), the annual average has dropped to less than half that at 73 deaths, so we’ve clearly seen a significant decline in on-duty firefighter fatality rates over time.”
The number of deaths attributed to cardiac issues dropped starkly from 51 percent in 2015, while the increase in internal trauma deaths — which was 24 percent in 2015 — could be attributed in part to deaths related to vehicle accidents jumping from 12 percent in 2015 to 25 percent last year.
Although the report has consistently shown a decline in on-duty firefighter fatalities in recent years, the NFPA is quick to point out that this does not provide the full picture of the risks firefighters face even years after the job — particularly with the issues of job-related cancers and PTSD coming to the forefront in the industry.
“While the annual report accurately reflects steadily declining rates among on-duty firefighters,” Fahy said, “it doesn’t capture many of the deaths that occur off duty that are ultimately the result of on-duty activities.”
