2012 Annual Report of FF LODD released

The U.S. fire administration released the 2012 annual report for firefighter line of duty deaths recently. Down by two deaths from 2011, 81 firefighters died in the line of duty. This report is informative in that it breaks down the data by incident, type of firefighter (career, volunteer, wildland), and other demographics such as age, gender, suburban/urban setting, etc. Only one of the firefighters that died in the line of duty was female. Forty two were volunteers, 28 were paid, and 11 were wildland.

One interesting statistic provided was emergency versus non emergency. Emergency LODD made up 55.6% (45 deaths), and non emergency was 44.4% (36 deaths). Non emergency deaths are training, administrative activities, performing other functions that are not related to an emergency, or those that occurred post incident but the firefighter did not experience it during the emergency.

Twenty two of the firefighters died during fireground operations. It surprises me how many still are dying from responding/returning to an incident. Speed is often a factor unfortunately, as is not wearing seat belts. Not wearing seat belts still amazes me because as first responders it's something that we tell others. In vehicle rescue, we see the results of not wearing proper restraints, yet are still guilty of the same action. It is one of those things that I don't understand why we haven't learned.

No firefighters died from being lost/disorientated in a burning structure for the second year.

This report is extremely informative and useful. Here is the link if you are interested: http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/ff_fat12.pdf.

Inherently, firefighting is a dangerous job. I don't think that there will ever be a year where there are zero line of duty deaths. However, reports such as these are valuable because we can learn. We know that we need to stay healthy, we know that we need to drive safe, we know that we have to wear our seat belts-unfortunately, at times, we don't seem to remember this. These reports are useful because it truly breaks down the line of duty deaths in a way that they can be used as an educational resource. Every LODD was a sacrifice-let's not make it for nothing. Let's remember and learn. I feel repetitive with this but we have to train. As first responders, our education never ends. We will never be able to guarantee that this job will be 100% safe. But we can operate in a way that can make it as safe as possible. Control the elements that you can. Learn.

Keep fire in your life. Stay safe.