Risk of injury by job assignment among federal wildland firefighters, United States, 2003–2007

Abstract

Background: Wildland fires cost billions of dollars annually and expose thousands of firefighters to a variety of occupational hazards. Little is known about injury patterns among wildland firefighters.

Methods: We examined non-fatal firefighter injuries among federal wildland firefighters reported to the US Department of the Interior for the years 2003–2007. The risk of disabling injury by job assignment, controlling for demographic and temporal variables, was assessed with logistic regression.

Results: Of the 1301 non-fatal injuries, slips, trips, and falls were the most frequent injury types and sprains/strains were the most common injury. Engine crew workers suffered a third of all injuries. Handcrews and helitak/smokejumper assignments had increased odds of sprains and strains, which were the most common injury overall.

Conclusions: While some injuries are equally prevalent by job assignment, others vary. Identifying hazards leading to these injuries will be essential to develop prevention strategies.

Keywords:

• Occupational safety
• Wildland fires
• Epidemiology
• Injury risk

This work was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center (CDC R49 CE0011567).

Disclosure: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.