Human factors are widely thought to contribute to a large proportion of adverse incidents that result in injuries and fatalities during fireground operations, firefighter training, and other firefighter work. However, there are challenges to accurately assessing and conveying human factors relevant to adverse incidents within the fire service. Since 2023, the NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP) has undertaken several efforts to collect human factors data related to firefighter injuries and fatalities to enable the development of more comprehensive prevention actions. This is in response to feedback received from the nation’s fire service. Since 2023, NIOSH FFFIPP has made the following progress:
- Posted a Federal Register Notice (FRN) requesting input about considerations and approaches to assess human factors as well as inclusion in reporting.
- Analyzed public comments received from the FRN and published those results for the fire service, detailing future work and next steps.
- Developed a project with support from more than 10 national fire service representative organizations and state fire marshal offices, which aims to identify a set of human factors elements related to firefighter injuries and fatalities that could allow the development and implementation of more comprehensive prevention actions. The project is currently undergoing required approvals, with data collection estimated to begin in the summer of 2026.
- Assessed and incorporated human factor considerations into several recently published serious injury and fatality investigation reports. Examples include F2025-07 LA, F2025-08 TX, F2025-09 GA, and F2025-10 TX.
NIOSH FFFIPP continues to pursue human factors considerations in its work to address the feedback received from the nation’s fire service.
