The U.S. Fire Administration has released the report Firefighter Fatalities in the United States in 2004, detailing the circumstances and trends found in the 117 U.S. firefighter deaths last year. Pennsylvania suffered the largest number of deaths with 18 firefighter fatalities. In 2004, 36 career firefighters and 81 volunteer firefighters lost their lives serving their communities.

"The challenge to reduce firefighter fatalities is one the entire fire service needs to take an active role in addressing. Many of our firefighter fatalities could be prevented by simple steps to enhance safety such as using seat belts, reducing speed while responding, and improved training," said Deputy U.S. Fire Administrator Charlie Dickinson. "The USFA looks forward to working with the many fire organizations and departments to continue the development and implementation of the 16 Everyone Goes Home firefighter safety initiatives."

Eighty firefighters died in activities directly related to emergency incidents. This includes all firefighters who died while responding to an emergency, while at an emergency scene or while returning from the emergency incident. Non-emergency activities, such as training and administrative activities, accounted for 37 fatalities.

Notable details from the report include:

• Two Pittsburgh firefighters were killed in the collapse of a burning church, two Nebraska firefighters were killed in the collapse of a burning single-family residence, and two Philadelphia firefighters were killed when they became trapped in the basement of a burning home. The Philadelphia Fire Department also suffered the loss of a firefighter in a January structure fire.
• Six female firefighters died in 2004. This level of female deaths has only been exceeded once in the past when four female firefighters perished in a single incident in 1994.
• The leading type of duty being performed was working on the scene of a fire incident; 30 firefighters died while working on fire scenes.
• The second leading type of duty was responding and returning from an incident scene with 22 deaths. Over half of these deaths were in vehicle crashes.
• 2004 had the highest level of stress or overexertion-related deaths in over a decade. There were 66 firefighter deaths that were attributed to stress and overexertion in 2004.
• In 2004, 61 firefighters died of heart attacks, four died of strokes, and one died of a heart-related cause.

The report also contains detailed information on healthy eating and safety during specific components of emergency response. The report may be ordered in hardcopy or downloaded in PDF from the USFA Web site.