Halftime Numbers

By Bill Carey
7 August 2023

A recent article about the slightly current number of line-of-duty deaths was sent to me by a few readers along with some questions about the accuracy of the numbers in the article.

Ron Kanterman’s article “It’s Halftime—But There’s No Show” on Fire Engineering is a good article that points to the need to encourage firefighters to be and stay healthy as well as to know when to call it quits due to age. Personal responsibility in both areas is key to limiting liability to families and departments.

Aside from those two points, which could stand on their own without data, the numbers and subjects referred to are quite incorrect.

“Once again, we’re heading for a bad year.”

No, we are not. Every year is a bad year simply because of the losses alone, but this year is trending an average of five to six on-duty deaths each month, projecting between 60 and 72 total deaths for the year. Barring some significant multiple fatality tragedies, 2023 could be one of the lowest total years in the last 10 years.

44 LODDs as of 19 July

The United States Fire Administration (USFA) lists 45 firefighter fatalities, as of 19 July 2023.

“Heart Attack/Stroke/Cancer/Illness: 25”

The actual number is 24, in the same date range referred to earlier.

Heart Attack: 14
CVA: 0
Unknown: 2
Other: 7
COVID: 1

The USFA counted one death due to suicide. The USFA does not count cancer deaths [1].

“Trauma: collapse/trapped/burns: 14”

The actual number is 15, but a bigger error is the mixing of the nature of fatal injury (trauma) and the cause of fatal injury (collapse/trapped/burns). As I have presented and written before, the USFA data is at times confusing and often generalized by users. A firefighter can die due to trauma without being inside a burning structure. Likewise, a firefighter can be caught in a collapse and not die due to trauma but asphyxiation, like many who have been involved in collapses into basements.

Vehicle crashes account for six fatalities in the specific period. Caught/Trapped, a USFA cause of death has six fatalities but not all are of the nature of Trauma. Struck by and Suicide are listed under Trauma in this instance.

“Driving/crashes: 5”

This number is also incorrect, in large part to how the USFA divides these deaths and how they are understood. Again, in the period referred to, there are only four fatalities. The fifth is the Texas firefighter killed when his POV struck a cow while responding to an alarm. “Responding” is one of the three subcategories the USFA uses. Driving/Operating Vehicle/Apparatus and Driving/Riding Personal Vehicle are the other two.

One of the two firefighter fatalities in the Driving/Operating Vehicle/Apparatus category was a heart attack at home after the incident. Another example of the unclear USFA data.

“If we simply double these numbers, we’re looking at 88 for 2024.”

As stated earlier, the actual projection would be between 60 and 72.

“-we’ve been to too many funerals.”

True, in some sense, but with exception to COVID in the last two years, we are not dying in any new way. “Too many,” and calls to try and keep the total to zero each year are just sentimental and well-meaning but not rational. Counting by the USFA [2] and the recent counting change by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) [3] show that our on-duty data definitions and criteria are extremely wide. We count deaths that have occurred while changing a mud flap, attending a county association meeting, driving to deliver paperwork, participating in a charity event, attending a funeral, and stopping to look at a crash scene the day after the crash, to name a few.

I have been to funerals too and also work with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation during the Memorial Weekends and correcting data does not lessen the losses or offer comfort. However, we do owe it to families, departments and ourselves to strive to project a proper view of fatality data and, as Kanterman rightly encourages us, to take personal responsibility for being healthier. That will make the biggest impact on the largest number of fatalities every year.

References

1. “There is no established mechanism for identifying fatalities that result from illnesses, such as cancer, which develop over long periods and may be related to occupational exposure to hazardous materials or toxic products of combustion. It has proved to be very difficult to provide a complete evaluation of an occupational illness as a causal factor in firefighter deaths due to the following limitations: the exposure of firefighters to toxic hazards is not sufficiently tracked; the often-delayed, long-term effects of such toxic hazard exposures; and the exposures firefighters may receive while off duty.” United States Fire Administration, annual fatality reports
2. “On Duty & Line of Duty: What Is the Difference?” Carey, April 2013
3. “NFPA Adding 24-Hour Cardiac Numbers to Yearly Firefighter Fatality Reports” Carey, 23 July 2023

Photograph courtesy of Unsplash.