Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Line of duty death

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Line of duty death

A line of duty death (LODD) is a death in the fire service while on duty at an emergency or drill. On average, there are more than 100 LODDs in the United States per year. When a fire department loses a member in a LODD, it will commonly fly its flag at half-staff, and members will cover their badges with a mourning band. The Fire Department New York has a tradition of announcing deaths with four series of five bells (the four fives, 5-5-5-5).

Contents

Statistics

All statistics

  • The leading cause of fatalities of firefighters is heart attack (44%), followed by trauma (27%), motor vehicle collisions (20-25%) asphyxia and burns (20%). Asphixia and burns generally affect firefighters under 35 years of age more than stress or heart attacks, whereas the opposite is true for firefighters over 35 years of age.
  • Full-time and career firefighters accounted for 33% of fatalities, but only 26% of the fire service.
  • Where fire departments have EMS, calls related to this service may account for as much as 80% of call volume and as low as 50%. However, fatalities associated with these calls are very insignificant (3%).
  • Volunteer firefighters account for 85% of en route fatalities.
  • In the past decade, fatalities during training have risen to 6%.
  • About 8% of fatalities occur at incidents with more than one LODD.

    • Prevention

    While the complexity of firefighting is increasing, due to everything from cars to chemicals, the number of LODDs is stagnant, or, if anything, decreasing.

    Another factor is that a large number of LODDs - motor vehicle collisions - are preventable.

    L.O.D. Deaths Present-1980

    ** The 2001 figure includes the 343 FDNY firefighters who were killed in the line of duty at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

    References

    Line of duty death Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA