Underwriters Laboratories’ (UL) Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) team has released a report on fire fighter line of duty injuries and near misses with the goal of improving fire fighter on-scene safety.
Fire fighter line of duty injuries and near-miss incidents provide a unique opportunity to collect information from the scene and the personnel involved soon after an incident occurs, according to UL.
The report includes a series of four in-depth examinations of near-miss incidents. As part of the analysis of the incidence, the FSRI research team applies findings from previous research funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The report is supported through the DHS Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program.
One the four examinations, “Four Firefighters Burned in Residential House Fire – Georgia,” details an incident where four career fire fighters suffered burn injuries while fighting a residential structure fire.
“Typically, these kinds of events are examined when a fatality occurs but with this project, we’re trying to make sure the fire fighter experiences are taken into account, providing valuable context to the findings so that they can be channeled into actionable insights for other fire service personnel to prevent future close calls and potential fatalities,” said Steve Kerber, Vice President and Executive Director for FSRI.
A link to the study can be found here.
