Firefighter activities, injuries, and deaths

Firefighter activities, injuries, and deaths

Also see: NFPA report: "Firefighter Fatalities in the United States 2012(PDF, 151 KB) June 2013
Overall statistics on line-of-duty firefighter fatalities in 2012, including non-incident-related deaths. Includes patterns, trends, career vs. volunteer comparisons, and brief narratives on selected incidents.

Also see: NFPAs report: "Firefighter Injuries in the United States" October 2012
Statistics on line-of-duty firefighter injuries in 2011 from NFPA’s survey of fire departments – including non-incident-related injuries, trends, and brief narratives on selected incidents.
 

On scene at fire incidents On scene at fire incidents On scene at non-fire incidents
Year Calls Firefighter deaths Firefighter injuries Calls Firefighter deaths Firefighter injuries
1981 2,893,500 75 67,510 7,701,000 8 9,600
1982 2,538,000 67 61,370 8,010,000 8 9,385
1983 2,326,500 60 61,740 8,606,500 12 11,105
1984 2,343,000 59 62,700 8,727,000 8 10,630
1985 2,371,000 63 61,255 9,517,000 9 12,500
1986 2,271,500 48 55,990 9,618,500 6 12,545
1987 2,330,000 54 57,755 9,907,500 12 13,940
1988 2,436,500 65 61,790 10,871,500 10 12,325
1989 2,115,000 59 58,250 11,294,500 6 12,580
1990 2,019,000 48 57,100 11,688,500 17 14,200
1991 2,041,500 53 55,830 12,515,000 8 15,065
1992 1,964,500 38 52,290 12,720,000 4 14,645
1993 1,952,500 34 52,885 13,366,000 8 16,675
1994 2,054,500 62 52,875 14,072,500 7 11,810
1995 1,965,500 42 50,640 14,426,000 12 13,500
1996 1,975,000 32 45,725 15,528,000 8 12,630
1997 1,795,000 41 40,920 16,162,500 12 14,880
1998 1,755,500 40 43,080 16,997,500 15 13,960
1999 1,823,000 56 45,550 17,844,000 10 13,565
2000 1,708,000 39 43,065 18,812,000 8 13,660
2001 1,734,500 378* 41,395 19,231,000 2 14,140
2002 1,687,500 46 37,860 19,616,000 10 15,095
2003 1,584,500 29 38,045 20,821,500 9 14,550
2004 1,550,500 30 36,880 21,066,000 9 13,150
2005 1,602,000 25 41,950 21,649,500 4 12,250
2006 1,642,500 37 44,210 22,827,500 6 13,090
2007 1,557,500 37 38,340 23,777,000 8 15,435
2008 1,451,500 29 36,595 23,801,000 11 15,745
2009 1,348,500 27 32,205 25,186,000 10 15,455
2010 1,331,500 22 32,675 26,873,500 5 13,355
2011 1,389,500 30 30,505 28,708,500 5 14,905
 2012   21       4  

* Includes 340 firefighters at the World Trade Center, September 11, 2001.
Numbers of calls and firefighter injuries are estimates from NFPA's National Fire Experience Survey. Numbers of firefighter deaths are taken from the annual NFPA tracking all of firefighter deaths.

Source: NFPA's "Firefighter Injuries in the United States," Michael J. Karter, Jr. and Joseph L. Molis, October 2012, and NFPA's "Firefighter Fatalities in the United States 2012," Rita F. Fahy, Paul R. LeBlanc and Joseph L. Molis, June 2012, and previous reports in the series.

Update: 6/13

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