title: Fire characteristics associated with firefighter injury on large federal wildland fires.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Wildland fires present many injury hazards to firefighters. We estimate injury rates and identify fire-related factors associated with injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from the National Interagency Fire Center from 2003 to 2007 provided the number of injuries in which the firefighter could not return to his or her job assignment, person-days worked, and fire characteristics (year, region, season, cause, fuel type, resistance to control, and structures destroyed). We assessed fire-level risk factors of having at least one reported injury using logistic regression. Negative binomial regression was used to examine incidence rate ratios associated with fire-level risk factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 867 fires, 9.5% required the most complex management and 24.7% required the next-highest level of management. Fires most often occurred in the western United States (82.8%), during the summer (69.6%), caused by lightening (54.9%). Timber was the most frequent fuel source (40.2%). Peak incident management level, person-days of exposure, and the fire's resistance to control were significantly related to the odds of a fire having at least one reported injury. However, the most complex fires had a lower injury incidence rate than less complex fires.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although fire complexity and the number of firefighters were associated with the risk for at least one reported injury, the more experienced and specialized firefighting teams had lower injury incidence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Iowa, IA 52242, USA.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Britton
authors.forename: Charles F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Torner
authors.forename: Corinne
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peek-Asa
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D061388:Firefighters; D005390:Fires; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D016015:Logistic Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D060051:Occupational Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012621:Seasons; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D037041:United States Government Agencies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055814:Wilderness