Though records have been kept only since 1977, that there have been 7,000 or more line-of-duty deaths in the last 50 years is a conservative estimate. Most if not all of the major occupational safety strides have occurred in the last 25 years. However, there were some earlier occurrences that had a positive effect on safety in the fire service.

One such occurrence took place in 1947 when Harry Truman convened the President's Conference on Fire Prevention. According to the announcement, 10,000 had died annually as a result of fire in the previous decade. The conference produced a document that covers a number of subjects intended to address that fact; safety was only mentioned in the context of “community” fire safety, rather than occupational safety for fire service members.

In 1958, the International Association of Fire Fighters established the John P. Redmond Fund, later known as the John P. Redmond Foundation, to “carry forth research and education regarding the occupational hazards and diseases associated with firefighting.” The first Redmond Symposium was held in 1971 and since has been the major fire service gathering strictly focused on fire service health and safety.

The year 1974 saw the first America Burning study, which focused on the 290 firefighter fatalities in 1971 that were either “on the job” or from heart attacks or respiratory issues. This study was not dissimilar to the 1947 Presidential Conference, as the majority of its focus was fire's impact on the general public. Firefighter safety did not appear to be a major issue for the blue ribbon commission, which also suggested the formation of the National Fire Academy.

In 1977, the National Fire Protection Association published its first in a series of reports on firefighter fatalities. The year 1978 was the high watermark with 178 fatalities; 1992 was the low point with only 75. Over the first decade of the report the fire service averaged 134 fatalities per year. At the start of the second decade, the fire service dipped to an average of only 105 fatalities a year.

That dip correlated with the release of the first edition of NFPA 1500, Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health. For the first time in the history of the American fire service there was a standard to provide guidance to fire departments regarding occupational safety and health. Though firefighter fatalities and injuries have remained relatively stable — despite the decline in structural fires — the standard provides a basis for decisions that will save lives.

In 1992, the federal government sponsored the formation of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, which focuses not only on those lost in the line of duty but on their survivors, humanizing the loss of a firefighter and creating the opportunity for reflection. The foundation's 2004 Firefighter Life Safety Summit in Tampa, Fla., may go down as one of the most important gatherings in the history of fire service safety, generating the 16 life-safety initiatives that have taken the American fire service by storm.

In 1996, the Fire Department Safety Officers Association became one of the first principally safety-oriented associations in the history of the American fire service. It now provides a certification process for safety officers. Many fire departments have certified their officers to function in the incident safety and health and safety officer roles.

In 2005, the International Association of Fire Chiefs formed the Safety, Health and Survival Section. Growing to 400 members within a year, the section has placed the nation's fire chiefs in a position to take an active lead role in the campaign to improve safety in the American fire service. One of the first actions of the section was to recognize departments and individuals who had made significant contributions fire service safety.

During the same year, the IAFC sponsored the launch of the National Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System to serve as a data collection tool to both learn from near misses and gather data about safety trends. This is very different from the days when fire departments were in effect closed societies where safety was neither practiced nor discussed.

There is still work to do, but the last 50 years have begun a definitive shift in fire service culture. The use of full turnout gear has become the rule rather than the exception. The use of SCBA has gone from a sign of weakness to the expectation. Safety for firefighters has gone from a non-factor in years past to at least a spoken priority for most of the fire service. Who ever would have thought it would be “cool” to be safe?

Perhaps 50 years from now those who write about safety will struggle to remember what it was like in the “good ol' days” or to remember the last line-of-duty death.