July 1 – NFPA 2014 Firefighter Fatality Report

The NFPA has just released their 2014 Firefighter Fatality Report, and below is an excerpt describing the deaths that occurred during training:

“Eight deaths occurred during training activities. Sudden cardiac death claimed seven firefighters – two during Work Capacity Tests, one during air management training, one during the fire department’s annual physical ability test, one while returning from an off-site physical and agility test, one at the fire station for driver training and one during wildland fire training. One firefighter died of influenza while he was attending training out-of-state.”

While we clearly have work to do in terms of health status and screening related to training events, I do take some measure of comfort that there were no documented cases of deaths as a result of unsafe practices on the training ground. We can’t let up on our push for safe, realistic fire service training, but perhaps this is an early indication that training culture is changing for the better.

Keep advocating for the Rules of Engagement for Safe Fire Service Training!!! 

Find the full report here:

Thanks for your time and continued commitment to reducing firefighters injuries and deaths through training and certification.