I am updating a fire officer resource. With each update, the sponsor requires more precise documentation with references.  Let me share 4 trending nuggets.

Natural Disasters Are Increasing in Severity and/or Frequency

While the number of wildfires has remained steady since 1985, the size and intensity of each fire have dramatically increased. (Koerth-Baker 2018) From 2014 to 2018 the United States has averaged 13 disasters a year requiring a billion dollars or more in FEMA disaster relief. (Stein & Van Dam 2019) Both of these types of events are multiple-day campaign operations that will take significant fire department resources to handle.

This graph shows the number of FEMA declarations from 1978 to 2018. Many FEMA declarations are after the local emergency agencies have been operating in a disaster mode for days.

National Fallen Fire Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) Makes a Difference

Bill Carey remains the dean of tracking and analyzing fire service line-of-duty death statistics. He describes the differences and details of each of the reporting entities. I am focusing on NFPA reports.

A result of efforts by the NFFF and others there has been a trend of less than 70 line-of-duty deaths from 2014 to 2018, a significant improvement over the average of 100 deaths from 2002 to 2008. (Fahy & Molis, 2019).

Specifically looking at deaths on the fireground, we average 26 firefighter fireground fatalities a year since 2007 (Fahy & Molis 2019) This is a significant improvement over the average of more than 80 fireground deaths per year in the 1970s.

The 2017 NFPA report shows that the number of fireground injuries per 1000 fires has declined from 26.9 in 2006 to 18.6 in 2017. (Evarts & Molis 2017)

In addition, deaths from responding or returning from alarms continue a five-year trend of low occurrences. All of the 2018 deaths occurred to volunteer firefighters, 8 of the 10 dying in motor vehicle accidents. That number was twice as high in the 1980s.

Two Concerns in Keeping Firefighters Alive While On The Job

We are still dropping dead of sudden cardiac arrest, the #1 cause of line-of-duty deaths since NFPA began tracking trends in 1977. For 2018 it represents 39% of the LODDs.

We need to become more proficient with thermal imaging cameras. NIOSH’s investigation of line-of-duty deaths revealed that some departments with thermal imaging devices did not use them. Either the firefighters did not know how to use the thermal imaging camera, the device was inoperable, or the device was not used (Starnes, 2018).

Homeless Encampments Create New Human and Public Safety Hazards

Lexipol recently provided a webinar “Crisis in the Streets: Fire Department Response to Homeless Individuals” that was eye-opening. Click on this link to see the on-demand webinar.

Homeless encampments experienced a 1000% increase from 2007 to 2017 and are occurring throughout the United States. Half of the encampments have 11-50 residents, 17% of the encampments have more than 100 residences. (NLCHP 2017) Fire departments are responding to calls for violence, fires and infectious diseases like typhus and tuberculosis (Gorman 2018)

Fire departments are sending two crews to any EMS event at an encampment, to have one company commander function as the scene safety officer while the others work at the task-level. (Goldfeder, Long & Schaeffer 2019)

Unique response units servicing the encampments include:

• Community Care Response Unit consisting of a Physician’s Assistant and a Captain/paramedic.
• Behavioral Response Unit consisting of a paramedic with a licensed mental health counselor.
• Alternative Response Unit staffed with EMT/firefighters to perform an initial assessment, triage patients to non-urgent transportation or call for a paramedic ambulance.

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Koerth-Baker, M. (2018 July 17) “Wildfires In The U.S. Are Getting Bigger.” FiveThirtyEight. NY: ABC News https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/wildfires-in-the-u-s-are-getting-bigger/

Stein, J. and A. V. Dam (2019 April 22). Taxpayer spending on U.S. disaster fund explodes amid climate change, population trends. The Washington Post. Washington DC, Nash Holdings. https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/04/22/taxpayer-spending-us-disaster-fund-explodes-amid-climate-change-population-trends/?utm_term=.966b5021a7dd

FEMA declarations: https://www.fema.gov/data-visualization-summary-disaster-declarations-and-grants

Fahy, R. F. and J. L. Molis (2019 June). Firefighter Fatalities in the US – 2018. Quincy MA, National Fire Protection Association. https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-reports/Emergency-responders/osFFF.pdf

Evarts B. and J. L. Molis (2018 November) United States Firefighter Injuries 2017. Quincy MA, National Fire Protection Association. https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-reports/Emergency-responders/osffinjuries.pdf 

Starnes, A. (2018). Thermal Imaging Cameras in the Fire Service: Asset or Detriment? You Decide. Fire Apparatus and Emergency Equipment. Tulsa, OK, Pennwell. https://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-23/issue-3/features/thermal-imaging-cameras-in-the-fire-service-asset-or-detriment-you-decide.html

NLCHP (2017). Tent City, USA: The Growth of America’s Homeless Encampments and How Communities are Responding. Washington, DC, National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. http://nlchp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Tent_City_USA_2017.pdf

Gorman, A. and Kaiser Health News (2019 March 8). Medieval Diseases Are Infecting California’s Homeless: Typhus, tuberculosis, and other illnesses are spreading quickly through camps and shelters. The Atlantic. New York, Atlantic Media, Inc.  https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/typhus-tuberculosis-medieval-diseases-spreading-homeless/584380/

Goldfeder, B., A. Long and B. Schaeffer (2019 July 9). Crisis In The Streets: Fire Department Response to Homeless Individuals. Webinar. Irvine, CA, Lexipol.  https://info.lexipol.com/webinar-fire-department-response-to-homeless

Featured Image: Seattle Ladder 3 (2019 May 27) Fire at homeless camp blocks Dearborn Street in Seattle. KOMO News.