NIOSH to investigate firefighter fatalities and injuries
Congress in Fiscal Year 1998 has appropriated funds to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for the study of “the continuing national problem of occupational firefighter fatalities and injuries.”
According to NIOSH, the overall goal is “to reduce firefighter line-of-duty deaths and injuries by conducting field investigation of all work-related fatalities; developing, recommending, and implementing prevention strategies and technologies; and communicating risk and prevention information to firefighters across the country.”
NIOSH will independently investigate all line-of-duty firefighter fatalities including those resulting from cardiac arrest, internal trauma, asphyxiation, crushing injuries, burns, drowning, and electrical shock. Line-of-duty fatalities, NIOSH says, may occur on the fireground, during response to or return from alarms, during training exercises, or during the performance of other nonfire emergency duties.
The Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) model will be used to investigate the fatalities. NIOSH will ensure that new and existing risk and prevention information is readily accessible to firefighters, fire departments, state fire marshals, researchers, and others “whose actions and decisions can serve to protect firefighters.”
Additional information on the NIOSH firefighter fatality prevention program, as well as individual investigation case reports and other information, can be accessed via the NIOSH web page at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/firehome.html. For additional information, contact Richard Braddee, project officer for the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, at (304) 285-6017 or Ted A. Pettit, chief of the Trauma Investigations Section, at (304) 285-5972.
