I have found it increasingly confusing when looking for the hard/fast LODD number. I don’t have this macabre fascination with firefighter deaths, but I look at the reports to find trends that indicate that we are moving in the right direction in reducing the number of LODDs.

If you look at Firefighter Fatalities in the United States-2008 that was released in July of this year by the NFPA, there were 103 LODDs in 2008. Their definition of on-duty deaths is as follows:

Each year, NFPA collects data on all firefighter fatalities in the U.S. that resulted from injuries or

illnesses that occurred while the victims were on-duty. The term on-duty refers to being at the scene of

an alarm, whether a fire or non-fire incident; while responding to or returning from an alarm; while

participating in other fire department duties such as training, maintenance, public education, inspection,

investigation, court testimony or fund raising; and being on call or stand-by for assignment at a location

Firefighter Fatalities in the U.S., 7/09 2 NFPA Fire Analysis and Research, Quincy, MA.

other than at the firefighter’s home or place of business.

On-duty fatalities include any injury sustained in the line of duty that proves fatal, any illness

that was incurred as a result of actions while on duty that proves fatal, and fatal mishaps involving nonemergency

occupational hazards that occur while on duty. The types of injuries included in the first

category are mainly those that occur at a fire or other emergency incident scene, in training, or in crashes

while responding to or returning from alarms. Illnesses (including heart attacks) are included when the

exposure or onset of symptoms occurred during a specific incident or on-duty activity.

The victims include members of local career and volunteer fire departments; seasonal, full-time

and contract employees of state and federal agencies who have fire suppression responsibilities as part

of their job description; prison inmates serving on firefighting crews; military personnel performing

assigned fire suppression activities; civilian firefighters working at military installations; and members

of industrial fire brigades.

Fatal injuries and illnesses are included even in cases where death is considerably delayed.

If you look at Firefighter Fatalities in the United States in 2008 that was released in September of this year by the USFA, there were 107 LODDs in 2008. However; an additional 11 fatalities qualified under the Hometown Heroes Survivor’s Benefit Act, bringing the 2008 total to 118. Their definition of on-duty deaths is as follows:

On-duty fatalities include any injury or illness sustained while on duty that proves fatal. The term “on-duty” refers to being involved in operations at the scene of an emergency, whether it is a fire or non-fire incident; responding to or returning from an incident; performing other officially assigned duties such as training, maintenance, public education, inspection, investigations, court testimony, and fundraising; and being on-call, under orders, or on standby duty except at the individual’s home or place of business. An individual who experiences a heart attack or other fatal injury at home while he or she prepares to respond to an emergency is considered on-duty when the response begins. A firefighter that becomes ill while performing fire department duties and suffers a heart attack shortly after arriving home or at another location may be considered on-duty since the inception of the heart attack occurred while the firefighter was on duty.

On December 15, 2003, the President of the United States signed into law the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefit Act of 2003. After being signed by the President, the Act became Public Law 108-182. The law presumes that a heart attack or stroke are in the line of duty if the firefighter was engaged in non-routine stressful or strenuous physical activity while on duty and the firefighter becomes ill while on duty or within 24 hours after engaging in such activity.

The inclusion criteria for this study have been impacted by this change in the law. Previous to December 15, 2003, firefighters who became ill as the result of a heart attack or stroke after going off duty needed to register some complaint of not feeling well while still on duty in order to be included in this study. For firefighter fatalities after December 15, 2003, firefighters will be included in this study if they become ill as the result of a heart attack or stroke within 24 hours of a training activity or emergency response. Firefighters who become ill after going off duty where the activities while on duty were limited to tasks that did not involve physical or mental stress will not be included in this study.

A fatality may be caused directly by an accidental or intentional injury in either emergency or nonemergency circumstances, or it may be attributed to an occupationally related fatal illness. A common example of a fatal illness incurred on duty is a heart attack. Fatalities attributed to occupational illnesses would also include a communicable disease contracted while on duty that proved fatal when the disease could be attributed to a documented occupational exposure.

Firefighter fatalities are included in this report even when death is considerably delayed after the original incident. When the incident and the death occur in different years, the analysis counts the fatality as having occurred in the year in which the incident took place. One firefighter died in 2008 from injuries sustained in a 1999 incident, bringing that year’s total to 114. Information about this death in Massachusetts is included in Appendix A of this report.

There is no established mechanism for identifying fatalities that result from illnesses such as cancer that develop over long periods of time and which may be related to occupational exposure to hazardous materials or toxic products of combustion. It has proved to be very difficult over the years to provide a complete evaluation of an occupational illness as a causal factor in firefighter deaths due to the following limitations: the exposure of firefighters to toxic hazards is not sufficiently tracked; the often delayed long-term effects of such toxic hazard exposures; and the exposures firefighters may receive while off duty.

So, as you can see, since December of 2003, the number of fatalities and what constitutes an LODD has changed. What does it mean? It means that, if you quote NFPA, there were 103 LODDs in 2008. If you quote USFA, there were 107 LODDs in 2008 and if you include criteria for HHSBA, there were 118 LODDs in 2008.

For me, the failure to draw statistical data from ONE source and especially where just one fatality can skew the results is disconcerting. And when discussing LODD, if you are looking at whether programs are helping to bring the number down, you might cite the lower number, but where you are arguing that more needs to be done, you may cite the higher number. If everyone is quoting the same source of information, then there can be no confusion.

In closing, I would like to invite everyone to re-visit Bill Carey’s article that was written earlier this year: http://www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blogs/2009-lodd-6month-summary-1

And I would like to point to a couple of interesting stats in the NFPA report for 2008 fatalities:

First, heart attacks in 2008 accounted for 41% of all career FF LODDs. Heart attacks in 2008 accounted for 52% of all volunteer FF LODDs.

Age groups – Career (21-25) 1 LODD; (61-65) 1 LODD; (66-70) 0 LODD; (over 70) 0 LODD.

Volunteer (21-25) 8 LODD; (61-65) 6 LODD; (66-70) 4 LODD; (over 70) 8 LODD.

Years of service – Career (5 or less) 4 LODD; (over 30) 2 LODD.

Volunteer (5 or less) 19 LODD; (over 30) 13 LODD.

If you read the reports, you may find information that will change the way that you recruit, retain and train your firefighters. We might very well find ourselves facing tough questions and tough decisions down the road if we want to continue our services.

If we truly believe that we learn from our mistakes, then the empirical data that we review and choose to ignore isn’t a “mistake”; it’s a crime.

We need to get it right.

This article is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is written by Art Goodrich a.k.a. ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-produced in any form without the expressed permission of the author. Please visit www.chiefreasonart.com.