EMMITSBURG, Md. — A majority of deaths occurred at on-scene fires, accounting for more than a quarter of fatalities, with many associated with overexertion and stress, many resulting in heart attack and cardiac arrest. This comes from a preliminary report released by the U.S. Fire Administration.
Non-incident related injuries made up almost 40 percent of the types of incidents that killed the firefighters.
2012:
- 40 Volunteer, 48%
- 32 Career, 38%
- 4 Wildland Part-time, 4.8%
- 3 Wildland Contract, 3.6%
- 2 Paid-on-Call, 2.4%
- Total deaths: 83
Trauma also accounted for a majority of the fatal injuries.
Most of the deaths occurred while firefighters were outside the apparatus and not manning a water line.
From previous years, 2012 saw a significant improvement in vehicle-related deaths.
Last year, 83 LODDs were also recorded, with again a majority of them being volunteers. Recent years have seen similar trends to those in the past, following a high casualty rate because of cardiac arrest and on-scene fire duty incidents.
N.C. and Pa. have ranked among the top states in last five years for the most LODDs.