Firefighter Fatalities in the United States 2003

NFPA Journal, Jul/Aug 2004 by Fahy, Rita F, LeBlanc, Paul R

Figure 6 shows death rates by age, using firefighter fatality data for the five-year period from 1999 through 2003, and estimates of the number of firefighters in each age group from the NFPA's 2001 profile of fire departments (the mid-year in the range).3 The lowest death rates are for firefighters in their 30s. Their death rate is a little more than half the all-age average.

The rate for firefighters in their fifties is two thirds higher than the average and for firefighters age 60 and over, it is almost four times the average. Firefighters over age 50 accounted for two-fifths of all firefighter deaths over the five-year period although they account for less than one-sixth of all firefighters.

Fire ground deaths

Figure 7 shows the distribution of the 29 fire ground deaths by fixed property use. The largest proportion of deaths occurred in residential structures (34 percent), with seven deaths in one- and two-family dwellings and three in apartment buildings.

There were nine deaths in wildland fires including one at a controlled bum, four deaths at three fires in stores or repair businesses, three deaths at two fires in wood product plants, one death at a vehicle fire, one death at a storage facility and one death at a vacant building.

To put the hazards of firefighting in various types of structures into perspective, the authors examined the number of fire ground deaths per 100,000 structure fires by structural property use. Estimates of the fire experience in each type of property were obtained from NFPA's annual fire loss studies from 1998 through 2002 (the 2003 results are not yet available) and from the updated firefighter fatality data for the corresponding years. The results are shown in Figure 8. Although more firefighter deaths occur in residential structures than in any other type of structure, fires in some nonresidential structures are more hazardous to firefighters, on average. There were 8.7 fire ground deaths per 100,000 nonresidential structure fires from 1998 through 2002, compared to 4.2 deaths per 100,000 residential structure fires. The low rate in that five-year period for manufacturing and storage properties is unusual-in previous studies, these types of properties have had death rates much higher than for residential properties.

Motor vehicle crashes

In 2003, 33 firefighters died in 23 vehicle crashes. This is the highest number of crash deaths reported in a single year in the 27 years that NFPA has been conducting this study. In addition to those deaths, six others were fatally struck by vehicles, one firefighter fell from the jump seat of an engine and another fell from the back of a pickup truck.

Twenty-four of the 33 firefighters killed in collisions or rollovers were responding to or returning from incidents when the crashes occurred. In the most catastrophic incident, eight firefighters returning from a wildland fire were killed when their van crossed the centerline while passing another vehicle and collided head-on with a tractor-trailer truck, bursting into flame. Alcohol was a factor in the crash. No information on seatbelt use was reported.