In 2007 the fire service experienced 118 line-of-duty deaths. That is the third highest total in the past 10 years. Included also in the 2007 firefighter fatality totals were the deaths of nine firefighters in Charleston, South Carolina. After reading the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) report and the report released from the independent panel hired by the City of Charleston, it is clear to me that the circumstances that led to the deaths of "The Charleston Nine" could have happened to any of us. I do believe, however, that the Charleston incident sheds some light on an alarming, growing trend in the fire service as well as shows root causes often overlooked because, like a virus, they remain hidden until their effects cause serious injury or death. The root cause, I believe, is lack of adequate training on updated material. The fire service is terrific in generating statistical data on firefighter fatalities and injuries, but as a professional organization we are terrible in digesting those numbers and transforming them into a standard training format and disseminating it throughout the fire service.
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