Duty-related firefighter fatalities stand at an average of 100 per year in the United States. Since the beginning of this decade (more specifically since Sept. 11, 2001), a great deal of effort has gone in to minimize or eliminate these incidents. Most of these efforts have concentrated on increasing such things as the awareness of the dangers of firefighting through training and education, levels of protective equipment, accountability, firefighter health and wellness, and tactical considerations at emergency operations. Yet one contributing cause to some line-of-duty deaths may be getting overlooked. It involves the psychological properties that perpetuate a cultural belief that firefighters have a duty to die.

Some of the extraordinary efforts designed to minimize firefighter line-of-duty deaths have not been as successful as hoped. So what else is there to do? Firefighters already know that their chances of surviving a motor vehicle crash are increased substantially by using seatbelts. Yet some still refuse to wear them. Firefighters already know, as Acting U.S. Fire Administrator Charlie Dickinson recently said, that the only reason a firefighter should die in the line-of-duty is if he or she is trying to save a life. Yet firefighters still rush into heavily involved vacant structures. Firefighters know that their health is their first line of defense and their greatest asset in enabling them to perform their job. Yet some continue to overeat, smoke, consume alcohol in excess and refuse to exercise. And through all of this, they are dying.

Typical reviews, evaluations and comments regarding firefighter line-of-duty deaths almost always focus solely on obvious and overt behaviors. The recommendations to prevent future incidents take the form of performance modifications or increased or adapted safety practices, such as those recommend by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

However, the mental developments that led to a firefighter being at that tragic place in time should be the starting point for reducing deaths and not a sidebar discussion. The practical actions, so often the focus of investigations, discussions, and recommendations, should be primarily support material. The 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives developed several years ago at the National Line of Duty Death Prevention Summit appear to be derived from those practical actions and not from the thought and decision-making processes that put a firefighter there in the first place.

Without a thorough review of the psychological and cognitive processes leading up to and occurring during line-of-duty incidents, the fire service is overlooking key elements in reducing and eliminating firefighter line-of-duty deaths. This includes instances where a firefighter believes that dying in the line of duty is part of the job or actually has a rewarding aspect. Such aspects are found in a theory referred to here as the firefighter duty-to-die syndrome.

The syndrome is a firefighter's behavior that reflects a sense of obligation and duty to unnecessarily risk personal and others' safety above what is appropriate or required according to standards. The firefighter does this to fulfill an intrinsic, environmental or cultural notion that this risk is expected and acceptable, even to the point of death. This can be a partial or full condition, with the range often depending on the level of the institutionalization of risky behavior by the culture of the department, groups or organizations of which the firefighter is a member.