Continually over the past several years, the fire service has had several firefighter deaths and many serious injuries in training situations or even in basic firefighter training courses. Why does any firefighter need to die in training? What possible justification can be offered for these deaths?

In fact, according to both the USFA and NFPA, about one in 10 firefighter fatalities in 2003 were in a training context. What's unknown is how many deaths were of recruit firefighters, perhaps the most vulnerable of all. How ironic: Recruits are trying to learn the skills and knowledge necessary to survive as a firefighter, and we kill them!

We need to understand what training deaths are not. They are not accidents. These deaths and serious injuries occur in the most controllable environment in which we operate. These deaths are the result of carelessness, negligence, laxity, sloppiness, neglect, recklessness, and imprudent or even stupid behavior on the part of those responsible for the safety and welfare of the students: the training officers, the training chiefs and the fire department leadership. These are people who, at the very least, tolerate, and at the worst, condone and encourage the type of training which results in recruit or firefighter deaths and serious injuries.

We need to call these senseless deaths what they are: fratricide, the act of killing one's brother.

The military used to call the actions of allied forces that resulted in casualties “friendly fire.” Nothing could be further from the truth, but at least these deaths are the result of a chaotic combat environment and often are due to human error under the duress of combat. The fire service has no such excuses for our training deaths.

The military has replaced the term friendly fire to better reflect the seriousness with which it now takes these casualties. It now uses the word fratricide, and the fire service would do well to follow suit.

The fire service also should consider how the military handles deaths that occur in a training environment: immediate investigations, filing of charges, court marshal proceedings, convictions, fines, confinement in a military brig or jail, reduction in rank, elimination of all benefits (including retirement), termination of military careers, and dishonorable discharges.

Each time a firefighter dies in a training environment, a full criminal investigation should immediately take place. These deaths are not accidents! People are directly and indirectly responsible for the death, and all appropriate persons must be held accountable, including criminal, civil and career accountability.

We owe that much to the training officers and fire chiefs who work hard to do it right. We owe this much to our recruits, our firefighters and our families.

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Garry Briese is the executive director of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.