NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 76

U.S. FIREFIGHTER
INJURIES IN 2019
injuries at the fireground in 2019 represented a 65 percent decline from the
high of 67,500 injuries in 1981, the first
year such data was collected. It should
be noted that the annual number of fires
has also declined steadily during this
period, for an overall decrease of 55 percent. The rate of 18.4 injuries per 1,000
fires in 2019 represented the third-lowest rate in the past 38 years, bettered
only by rates of 17.4 injuries per 1,000
fires in 2018 and 18.1 injuries per 1,000
fires in 2016.
Non-fire emergencies accounted
for 14,150 injuries in 2019, a 47 percent increase over the 9,600 injuries
reported for this type of duty in 1981. It
is important to note that the number of
non-fire emergencies increased by 367
percent over this same period, due in
large part to an increase in the number
of fire department responses to medical emergencies. The injury rate per
1,000 non-fire emergencies declined
between 1981 and 2019, from 1.2 to 0.4,
largely because the number of non-fire
emergencies increased at a higher rate
than the number of injuries at non-fire
responses. In general, however, the total
number of injuries in non-fire emergencies has fluctuated substantially.
Another 8,175 firefighter injuries in
2019 occurred during training activities, and 10,575 injuries occurred
during other on-duty activities. In addition, 4,100 firefighter injuries occurred
while responding to or returning from
an incident.

Nature and cause of
fireground injuries
The major types of injuries that occurred
during fireground operations were
strains and sprains, which accounted for
41 percent of all injuries; wounds, cuts,
bleeding, and bruises, which accounted
for 13 percent; smoke or gas inhalation,
which accounted for 10 percent; and
thermal stress, including frostbite or
heat exhaustion, which accounted for 9
percent. Strains, sprains, and muscular
pain were the leading type of injury in
all firefighter activities and accounted for
59 percent of all non-fireground injuries,
while wounds, cuts, bleeding, and bruises
were the second-leading cause of injury
in non-fireground activities, accounting
for 13 percent of non-fireground injuries.
Because fireground injuries
are of particular concern from an

occupational hazard perspective, we
examined their causes, defined here as
the initial circumstances leading to the
injury. Overexertion or strain was the
leading cause of fireground injuries,
with 29 percent of the fireground injury
total. Other major causes were falls,
jumps, or slips (20 percent) and exposure to fire products (15 percent).

Fire department vehicle
collisions
In 2019, an estimated 15,350 collisions
involved fire department emergency
vehicles responding to or returning
from incidents. To put this number
in perspective, fire departments
responded to more than 37.3 million
incidents in 2019, meaning that the
number of collisions represents 0.04
percent of the total responses. However,
these collisions resulted in 575 injuries,
or one percent, of all firefighter injuries. Another 800 collisions involved
firefighters' personal vehicles, in which
they were responding to or returning from incidents. These collisions
resulted in an estimated 10 injuries.

Average fires and fireground
injuries per department
by population protected
The number of fires a fire department
responds to is directly related to the size
of the population it protects, and the
number of fireground injuries incurred
by a department is directly related to the
number of fires it attends. The second
point is clearly demonstrated when we
examine the range of the average number
of fireground injuries per year per fire
department, which ranges from a high of
75.3 for departments that protect communities of 500,000 or more, to a low of
0.2 for departments that protect communities with fewer than 2,500 people.
One way to understand the risk
that firefighters face is to examine the
number of fireground injuries that
occur for every 100 fires they attend.
This takes into account relative fire
experience and allows for more direct
comparison between departments
protecting communities of different
sizes. In 2019, the overall range of rates
varied from a high of 2.4 injuries per
100 fires for departments that protected communities with populations
of 500,000 or more to a low of 1.3 injuries per 100 fires for departments that

protected communities with populations between 5,000 and 9,999.
Larger fire departments generally
had the highest rates of fireground
injuries per firefighter, and departments protecting communities of
500,000 or more experienced 5.5 injuries per 100 firefighters. As the size of
the community decreases, the rate of
fireground injuries generally declines,
to a low of 0.9 per 100 firefighters for
departments protecting fewer than
2,500 people. That is a difference in
risk of injury per firefighter of more
than 6 to 1 between the largest communities and the smallest.
Firefighters in larger cities may face a
higher risk of injury because they make
a substantially higher number of calls
than those in smaller departments. In
addition, the presence of infrastructure
and large buildings could expose them
to more complicated hazards than
those in areas with less developed infrastructure and smaller buildings. Fire
departments in smaller communities
are also more likely to be staffed by volunteer firefighters, who are unlikely to
report to every fire and who face lower
levels of injury exposure. Different policies for documenting minor injuries and
different levels of fire engagement could
also explain some of the difference.

Conclusions of the 2019 study
Since 1981, when data was first collected for this report, the trend has
been a decrease in the number of firefighter injuries. Fireground injuries are
the most common, but many firefighters are injured elsewhere, including
during training exercises and while performing other duties. The risk of injury
is common to a full gamut of firefighter
job demands.
As the statistics in this report and
previous reports attest, firefighting
presents numerous risks of personal
injury to firefighters. Due to the kind
of work performed and the hazards
of the incident scene environment, it
is unlikely that all firefighter injuries
can be eliminated. A risk management
system and the application of existing
technology, however, can offer options
to reduce present injury levels.
BEN EVARTS is the data collection & research
manager in the Data & Analytics Department
at NFPA. RICHARD CAMPBELL is a senior
research analyst in the NFPA Research Group.

76 | NFPA JOURNAL * N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0

Firefighter Injury NOV DEC 2020 DCS FINAL 10.29.30 76

10/29/20 6:13 PM



NFPA Journal - November/December 2020

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