The May 2011 issue of
Accident Analysis and Prevention contains an article titled "
Line-of-duty deaths among U.S. firefighters: An analysis of fatality investigations" by Kumar Kundharaju, Todd Smith, and David DeJoy. In their analysis of 189 NIOSH Firefighter Fatality Investigations the authors examined causes of Medical and Trauma related fatalities and partially examined the relevance of culture in the American Fire Service and the impact of culture on the occurrence of firefighter LODD.
The article is an interesting one and it raises several key points and identifies four high order causes of firefighter fatalities.
- Under Resourcing
- Inadequate Preparation for/Anticipation of adverse events
- Incomplete adoption of ICS
- Sub-optimal Personnel Readiness
I read this article with a thought in mind..."No, S%^&". This article is really a formal (if limited) analysis of fatality data that affirms everything that I talk about. If you embrace the
Ethos statements of the Fire Service Warrior you will solve or identify the weaknesses that are bringing about injuries and Line of Duty Deaths.
The article is a good read and provides food for thought. If you don't want to spend the $42.00 to buy the article go to your library and they should be able to get you access. To me it really provides some referenced work about why it is so important that we develop an elite level of fitness, use our PPE, and train our people to a level where they are so proficient that they CANNOT get fundamental fireground skills wrong.
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