Firefighters suffered 71,875 injuries in the line of duty last year, an eight percent decrease from 2009 and a two-decade low, according to the new NFPA report, “U.S. Firefighter Injuries.” The report takes a look at the number of 2010 firefighter injuries, injuries by type of duty, exposures to infectious diseases, and how a community’s size affects the number of injuries within a fire department.

Key findings from the report include:

• An estimated 15,000 injuries, or 20.8% of all firefighter injuries, resulted in lost time from work in 2010.
• In addition to injuries, there were 11,200 exposures to infectious diseases and 25,700 exposures to hazardous conditions.
• The Northeast reported a higher number of fire ground injuries per 100 fires (sustained from structure fires, vehicle fires, and brush fires) than other regions of the country.
• Almost half (45%) of all firefighter injuries occurred during fireground operations. An estimated 13,355 occurred at non-fire emergencies, 4,380 while responding to or returning from an incident, 7,275 during training activities, and 14,190 during other on-duty activities.
• The major types of injuries received during fireground operations were strains, sprains, muscular pain, which were responsible for 52.8% of the injuries; wounds, cuts, bleeding, bruises, responsible for 14.2%; and burns, responsible for 5.9%.
• The leading causes of fireground injuries were overexertion and strain, which was responsible for 25.7% of the injuries. Falls, slips and jumps were responsible for 22.5%.
• The number of fires a fire department responds to is directly related to the size of the population it protects and the number of fire ground injuries incurred by a department is directly related to the number of fires the department attends.