Research A workplace dispute led to the shooting death of an on-duty firefighter at a California fire station. The assailant, a firefighter at the same fire station, barricaded himself in his home following the shooting and set the structure, pictured here, on fire. He was later found dead of an apparent selfinflicted gunshot wound. The colleague he killed was one of 135 firefighters to die in the line of duty in the United States in 2021. REPORT SUMMARY US FIREFIGHTER DEATHS IN 2021 AS IN 2020, LINE-OF-DUTY COVID-RELATED DEATHS AGAIN ACCOUNT FOR ROUGHLY HALF OF THE NATION'S FIREFIGHTER FATALITIES By Rita F. Fahy, Ph.D., and Jay T. Petrillo 72 | NFPA JOURNAL * WINTER 2022 GETTY IMAGES