NFPA Releases Latest Report on Firefighter Injuries

The National Fire Protection Agency has released its latest report into annual firefighter injuries, showing a sharp drop from the previous year and the lowest total in 25 years.

The NFPA report, compiled from fire departments responding to the agency's annual U.S. Fire Experience survey, says there were 62,085 on-duty injuries in 2016, which marks and 8.8 percent decrease from 2015 and the lowest rate since the NFPA started analyzing firefighter injury data in 1981.

Of the total injuries, 24,325 were sustained on the fireground and 19,050 resulted in lost time. The leading injuries were strains, sprains and/or muscular pains (52.6 percent); and wounds, cuts, bleeding, and bruising (15.2 percent). The most frequent injuries on the fireground were overexertion and strain (27.1 percent).

The most common injuries off the fireground occurred during non-fire emergencies (20.6 percent), on-duty activities (18.2 percent) and training (13.7 percent).

In addition to physical injuries, there were 9,275 documented exposures to infectious diseases such as hepatitis, meningitis or HIV, amounting to one exposure per 2,500 emergency medical service runs by fire departments. 

There were also 36,475 exposures to hazardous conditions such as asbestos, chemicals, fumes or radioactive materials, which marks one exposure per 30 hazardous condition runs.

Lastly, there were an estimated 15,425 collisions involving emergency vehicles responding to or returning from incidents, the seventh highest number of collisions since the NFPA began collecting such data in 1990.

Read the entire report here and stay safe out there.