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• Firefighter Fatalities in the United States -- 2006 

In 2006, a total of 89 on-duty firefighter deaths occurred in the U. S. This is a slight increase over the 87 firefighter fatalities that occurred in 2005. It was the second consecutive year, and the fifth out of 10 years, that the total number of deaths has been below 100.1 Figure 1 shows firefighter deaths for the years 1977 through 2006, excluding the 340 firefighter deaths at the World Trade Center in 2001. . . .

Conclusions Although the total on-duty death toll in 2006 is only slightly higher than for 2005, there are some important differences worth calling out:

* Deaths at fires were at their highest level over the past four years. This was due largely to the increase in the number of deaths on wildland fires; deaths at structure fires over the same period have plateaued at approximately 20 per year. * The lowest number of on-duty heart attacks deaths reported over the years of this study occurred in 2006. * Deaths during training activities, highlighted in the 2005 fatality article, were at their lowest level since 1999. * The number of career and volunteer firefighter fatalities were both close to their all-time lowest levels in 2006; the number of other types of firefighters killed on-duty was third highest since 1977.

Other patterns continue to appear in much the same form, year after year. Again in 2006, sudden cardiac death, usually heart attacks, accounted for the largest share of on-duty firefighter fatalities. A very large proportion of the victims had serious health problems, which had not necessarily been diagnosed or treated.

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