The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released its annual report on firefighter line-of-duty deaths (LODDs) for 2017 at its annual conference and expo in June. The NFPA started keeping its LODD database in 1977, and this past year marked the lowest total of LODDs since it started keeping records more than 40 years ago!

Though progress has been slow, there has been continued progress. For the period of 1977 to 1991, the average number of LODDs was more than 120. For six of the past seven years, the number of LODDs has averaged fewer than 70. This is about a 50 percent decrease in the past 40 years.

A Variety of Factors

No one single initiative has led to this 50 percent decrease. It has been a combination of initiatives. Firefighters are more aware of their physical condition and are, generally, in better shape than in previous years. Incident management has evolved, with the incorporation of incident scene safety officers, to make the fire scene safer. We now have NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program, as a standard to develop and maintain a program to look after the well-being of firefighters. Those of us with a bit of institutional knowledge recall that when NFPA 1500 was being developed, it was the standard that was going “to put fire departments out of business.” More than 30 years later, there is no knowledge of the standard putting a fire department out of business. The impact of the standard has been a 50 percent reduction in LODDs. That’s kept a lot of firefighters in business. Think about it: If we were still averaging more than 120 LODDs annually, during the past seven years (when the average has been fewer than 70) there would be another 350 or more firefighters NOT alive today.

Apparatus, equipment, and personal protective equipment have made steady improvements. For example, we did not have the advantage of thermal imaging cameras and PASS devices 40 years ago. We have transitioned to wearing hoods and turnout gear with breathable moisture barriers. Perhaps one of the biggest design changes was the requirement to have fully enclosed cabs—an NFPA requirement. Today, almost all open or canopy cab apparatus have been retired. The result: We hardly hear of a firefighter dying after falling off an apparatus. Yet, this happened at least a half-dozen times annually during the late 1970s and 1980s.

New Focus Area Emerges

What about the focus area mentioned in the title of this column? In 2017, 10 firefighters were struck by vehicles! This is more than double what the average has been and, by far, the highest number in the past 40 years. The NFPA did not elaborate on the cause for this high number, but I think we can all agree that it probably relates to distracted and impaired drivers. As a fire service, we need to make sure that 2017 becomes an outlier and not the start of a new norm.

The Emergency Responder Safety Institute has a wealth of knowledge about roadway scene safety on its Web site at www.respondersafety