The U.S. Department of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response has released its report on 2003 U.S. firefighter fatalities. The report details the circumstances surrounding 111 firefighter fatalities that year and contains special information on alcohol use in the fire service, risk management and on diesel exhaust emissions and fires in which firefighters become disoriented inside buildings.

According to the report, firefighters died in 98 incidents last year. The deaths in 2003 were 111% of the 10-year average and 108% of the five-year average.

As it has been in every year for more than the past decade, the largest cause of firefighter deaths in 2003 was stress or overexertion, listed as the primary factor in 51 firefighter deaths. Most firefighter deaths attributed to stress result from heart attacks. Of those 51 stress-related fatalities in 2003, 50 firefighters died of heart attacks; one died of heat exhaustion.

The second-leading cause of fatalities was vehicle collisions, which took the lives of 34 firefighters, the highest single-year total for this category since 1990. The USFA noted that the number of firefighters dying in vehicle collisions has been steadily rising in recent years. Six firefighters died in 2003 as they responded to emergencies in their personal vehicles. “The deceased firefighter was not wearing a seatbelt in four of the five cases where the status of seatbelt usage was known,” it said.

Another tragic record: The number of deaths due to physical trauma was higher than any year since 1990, with the exception of the high toll of Sept. 11, 2001.

There were seven multiple-fatality incidents resulting in the deaths of 20 firefighters. The largest occurred when eight Oregon-based wildland contract firefighters died when their van was involved in a head-on crash with a tractor-trailer truck as they returned to base after fighting wildland fires in Idaho. The firefighters were reported to be drinking alcohol.

The number of deaths associated with brush, grass or wildland firefighting in 2003 was 29, the highest number of wildland firefighter fatalities since 1994, when 14 firefighters perished on Storm King Mountain in Colorado; 36 firefighters died in association with wildland fires that year.

After a year with no burnover deaths in 2002, four firefighters died in 2003 when their positions were overrun by rapid fire progress. Three of these deaths were during fire control operations and one occurred at a planned burn.

In 2003, there were seven firefighter deaths associated with wildland aircraft firefighting duties, the highest number since nine were killed in 1994.

Activities related to emergency incidents resulted in the deaths of 78 firefighters. Nonemergency activities accounted for 33 fatalities. While the total number of firefighter fatalities has been trending downward over the past 20 years, the number of firefighter deaths per fire incident has actually risen, the report concludes.

The full 2003 report, previous years' reports and the Firefighter Fatality Retrospective Study 1990-2000 can be found at www.usfa.fema.gov/inside-usfa/nfdc/pubs/ff_fat.shtm.