Firefighter Injury Data Are Wrought With Discrepancy: Pearls From the National Burn Repository

In 2015, 68,085 firefighters suffered work-related injury, according to estimates from the U.S. Fire Administration. Despite these figures, only 473 firefighter injuries were captured in the National Burn Repository (NBR) over a 9-year period. Of the 96 burn centers that contribute data, 50 did not report a single firefighter burn injury. Two thirds of the injuries were reported by two individual centers. The NBR does not capture the full scope of firefighter injuries, likely due to issues with reporting, data extraction, and firefighters seeking burn care at facilities without dedicated burn centers. Firefighters have unique considerations when it comes to planning return to work in a high-heat environment after thermal injury. Firefighters should have access to burn centers when seeking treatment for burn injury.