Firefighter Casualty Reports

Annual Fatality Report

For 34 years, the National Fire Data Center has kept track of firefighter fatalities and conducted an analysis of the fatalities that occur each year. Through the collection of information on the causes of firefighter deaths, the USFA is able to focus on specific problems and direct efforts towards finding solutions to reduce the number of firefighter fatalities in the future. This information is also used to measure the effectiveness of current efforts directed toward firefighter health and safety.

The specific objective of the study Firefighter Fatalities in the United States is to identify all of the onduty firefighter fatalities that occur in the United States and to analyze the circumstances surrounding each occurrence. The study is intended to help identify approaches that could reduce the number of deaths in future years.

Criteria Used to Make Onduty Firefighter Fatality Determinations

2010 Annual Report - Overview of Findings

87 firefighters died while on duty in 2010.

The total break down included 56 volunteer, 28 career, and 3 wildland agency firefighters.
There were 4 firefighter fatality incidents where 2 firefighters were killed in each, claiming a total of 8 firefighters.
11 firefighters died in duties associated with wildland fires. Along with 11 such deaths in 2007, it was the lowest number of annual firefighter deaths associated with wildland fires in a decade.
Activities related to emergency incidents resulted in the deaths of 48 firefighters.
22 firefighters died while engaging in activities at the scene of a fire.
16 firefighters died while responding to or returning from 15 emergency incidents. 9 of the firefighters killed while responding to incidents died from heart attacks (8) or stroke (1).
Heart attacks were the most frequent cause of death with 50 firefighter deaths.
12 firefighters died while they were engaged in training activities.
15 firefighters died after the conclusion of their onduty activity.