Responders at Risk
January 2008
“The emergency response community represents a significant population of workers exposed to a particularly intense and variable hazard environment in the course of their work activities."
Emergency Responder Population *
In the United States, approximately 1,136,650 firefighters, 800,000 patrol and investigative law enforcement officers, and 201,000 emergency medical service responders answer calls for assistance and service that result in significant numbers of occupational injuries and fatalities.
In 2006, 30,300 fire departments had a total complement of about 286,800 career firefighters and 777,350 active volunteer firefighters, for a total of about 1,054,000 firefighters. There were 3,853 career or mostly career departments in the United States; 25,667 volunteer or mostly volunteer departments covered the remainder. (National Fire Protection Association)
In 2000, there were nearly 800,000 full-time sworn law enforcement officers, of whom about 441,000 regularly responded to calls for service and another 142,000 had primarily investigative responsibility. In addition, there were more than 380,000 full-time non-sworn or
“civilian” employees. (Bureau of Justice Statistics)
About 212,000 emergency medical personnel belonged to EMS agencies (both public and private) and up to 465,000 belonged to fire departments (both career and volunteer), for a total range of 212,000 to 678,000 emergency medical responders
An average of 97 firefighters and 155 police officers died each year between 1990 and 2001, and an average of at least 11 non-firefighter EMS personnel died in the line of duty each year between 1998 and 2001.
The fatality rate for both police and career (paid) firefighters is approximately three times as great as the average for all occupations, placing them in the top fifteen occupations for the risk of fatal occupational injury; the fatality rate for emergency medical services responders is about two and one-half times the rate for all occupations.
Firefighters
Approximately 88,000 firefighters are injured each year; about 2,000 of their injuries are potentially life-threatening.
Between 1995 and 2000, the U.S. firefighter population (both career and volunteer) averaged 88,000 work-related injuries each year.
Causes of fatal injuries for firefighters (NFPA):
Other injuries:
Just over half of firefighter injuries (51 percent) and two-fifths of fatalities (44 percent) occur on the fireground, with the remainder being distributed among responding to and returning from calls, nonfire emergencies such as EMS calls, training, and other on-duty events
27% of injuries result in retirement
Law Enforcement Professionals
Causes of fatal injuries for law enforcement (National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
Fund):
Other injuries:
EMS Personnel
Causes of fatal injuries for firefighters (National EMS Memorial Service):
Other injuries:
Among emergency responders, emergency medical personnel have the highest risk of exposure to infectious disease: