The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released the latest edition of its “U.S. Firefighter Injuries” report, which highlights data on injuries sustained by firefighters on duty in 2015. The statistics were collected from fire departments responding to NFPA’s annual U.S. Fire Experience survey.
There were 68,085 U.S. firefighter injuries in 2015. While this number reflects a 7.5 percent increase over 2014, it represents the third lowest injury rate since 1981, when the association began analyzing firefighter injury data.
Of those injuries, 29,130 (42.8 percent) occurred during fireground operations, with the leading causes reported as falls, slips and jumps (27.2 percent) and overexertion and strain (27.2 percent).