Report: NFPA's "U.S. Firefighter Injuries - 2016"
Author: Hylton J.G. Haynes and Joseph L. Molis
Issued: October 2017
Report highlights
- 62,085 firefighter injuries were reported in the U.S in 2016. Of these, 24,325 were injuries at the fireground.
- The number of fireground injuries per 1,000 fires has remained relatively constant for the past 20 years, which reinforces the need for continued standards development, as well as fire prevention outreach and advocacy.
- Strain, sprain, muscular pain resulted in almost half the major types of injuries received during fireground operations (46%) and more than half during non-fireground activities (57%).
- In addition to injuries, there were 9,275 documented exposures to infectious diseases (e.g., hepatitis, meningitis, HIV, other) in 2016. This amounts to 1 exposure per 2,500 emergency medical service runs by fire departments.
- There were an estimated 36,475 documented exposures to hazardous conditions (e.g. asbestos, chemicals, fumes, radioactive materials, other) in 2016. This amounts to 1 exposure per 30 hazardous condition runs by fire departments.
- In 2016, there was an estimated 15,425 collisions involving fire department emergency vehicles responding to or returning from incidents. This is the seventh highest number of collisions since NFPA began collecting this information in 1990.
Related information
Older versions of this report
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