USFA Releases Report on 2016 Firefighter Fatalities

The U.S. Fire Administration has released its annual report breaking down the nature of the 89 on-duty firefighter deaths that occurred in 2016.

Last year, firefighter fatalities in the U.S. comprised 23 career firefighters, 56 volunteers and 10 part-time or full-time members of wildland or wildland contract agencies.

Of the 23 career firefighters who died, all were members of urban or suburban departments, while 37 of the 56 volunteer deaths came from rural departments. The 10 wildland agency deaths were split evenly among full-time firefighters and part-time or seasonal firefighters.

Read the entire report here.

A total of 85 incidents resulted in the 89 deaths, including three incidents that took the lives of seven firefighters. One structural collapse killed three career firefighters, and two vehicle crashes each killed two wildland firefighters.

The key takeaways from the report are as follows:

• Activities related to emergency incidents resulted in the deaths of 36 firefighters.
• Seventeen firefighters died while engaging in activities at the scene of a fire.
• Ten firefighters died while responding to emergency incidents.
• Nineteen firefighters died as the result of vehicle crashes.
• Heart attacks were the most frequent nature of fatal injury with 40 firefighter deaths.
• Nine firefighters died while they were engaged in training activities.

All 89 firefighters who died on duty in 2016 were male, marking the second consecutive such year and the fifth since 1990.

Another takeaway from the report is that the trend of firefighter fatalities has remained on a downward trajectory. From 1996 to 2006, there were only three years with fewer than 100 on-duty deaths, but from 2007 through last year, there were only three years with more than 100 deaths.

So far in 2017, there have been 83 reported firefighter fatalities, according to the USFA.