Wildland Firefighters Suffer Increasing Risk of Job-Related Death.

Abstract

Wildland firefighting is a niche specialization in the fire service - inherently dangerous with unique risks. Over the past decade, fatalities amongst all firefighters have decreased; however, wildland firefighter fatalities have increased. This subject has only been described in the grey literature, and a paucity of medical literature exists. The United States Fire Administration's online fatality database was queried for on duty mortality between 1990 and 2022. The year 2001 was excluded due to the 340 deaths that occurred on September 11th. Data collected included demographics, incident characteristics, and nature of fatality and was compared between the decades using a Fisher's exact test. From 1990-2000 to the decade of 2013-2022, there has been a significant increase in wildland fatalities, from 2% to 10% of total fatalities (p < 0.00001). Despite the recent wave of 2023 wildfires across North America, the average annual number of wildfires has decreased 23% (from 79,829 to 61,377) between 1990-2000 and 2013-2022. Burn related fatalities have increased over time, from 9% of fatalities to 27% (p < 0.01), while trauma related injuries decreased significantly between the second and third decade (p <0.01). MI accounted for 16% of total fatalities, with no significant change over time. Although wildfires have become less common over the past decade, there was a 5-fold increase in wildland firefighter fatalities with burn related fatalities also increasing. Further investigation, including analysis of 2023 data, is required to augment development of health and safety measures for these heroes.