Occupational injuries in categories of personnel of Federal Fire Service of EMERCOM of Russia (2006–2020)

Relevance. Occupational injuries - a set of injuries received by workers in the workplace and caused by non-compliance with working conditions for a certain period of time, for example, for 1 year. Industrial injuries - a controlled process and an indicator of occupational safety.
Intention. To analyze occupational injuries among the personnel of the Federal Fire Service (FFS) of the EMERCOM of Russia by category for 15 years from 2006 to 2020.
Methodology. The injury rates for personnel (with special ranks and employees) of the FFS of the EMERCOM of Russia were obtained from the statistical data bank on morbidity, injuries, disability and death of personnel of the EMERCOM of Russia units during the performance of their duties. Injury rates per 10,000 firefighters were calculated. The received injuries were correlated with the categories of personnel (operational personnel, preventive, technical and managerial personnel) and activities (fire fighting, training / sports and everyday activities). The circumstances of receiving injuries were generalized by causes: technical, organizational, psycho-physiological and dangerous fire-related factors. The results were checked for normality of distribution. Arithmetic mean values and their errors are presented. The dynamics of receiving injuries was assessed using time series and 2nd order polynomial trends. Consistency (congruence) of the studied trends was assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficients.
Results and Discussion. There is a decrease in occupational injuries in all categories of personnel of the EMERCOM of Russia FFS. Average annual level of occupational injuries in 2006-2020 was (14.66 ± 2.01) per 10,000 firefighters. Russian workers overall tended to have higher levels (17.87 ± 1.56) per 10,000 Russian workforce (nonsignificant difference). The consistency of the trends is strong positive and statistically significant (r = 0.833; p < 0.001), which may indicate the influence of unidirectional factors in recieving injuries. The proportion of injuries among operational personnel was 67.1% of the structure of all occupational injuries, the average annual injury rate was (14.47 ± 2.06) per 10 thousand firefighters; among preventive personnel - 6.6 % and (12.33 ? 2.33) per 10 thousand, respectively; among technical personnel - 6.5 % and (10.86 ± 1.58) per 10 thousand, respectively; among managerial personnel - 19.8 % and (18.65 ± 2.49) per 10 thousand firefighters, respectively. The highest level of occupational injuries and the proportion of injuries among the operational staff were due to psychophysiological causes during daily activities - (4.31 ± 0.86) per 10 thousand firefighters and 19.5 % of the structure of all injuries and fire hazards during fire extinguishing - (4.03 ± 0.45) per 10 thousand and 18.2 %, respectively. For preventive, technical and managerial personnel, the leading causes of injuries were psychophysiological factors during daily activities - (7.21 ± 1.43) per 10 thousand and 3.8 %; (6.19 ± 0.95) per 10 thousand and 3.7 %; (6.55 ± 0.81) per 10 thousand firefighters and 7.2 %, respectively. The average annual risk of receiving injury during firefighting among the personnel of the EMERCOM of Russia FFS in 2009-2020 amounted to (0.18 ± 0.01) x 10^-3 injuries/(fire x year), for the operational staff -(0.15 ± 0.01) x 10^-3 injuries/(fire x year). There is a tendency to reducing risks of injury. Risks of injury turned out not to depend on the number of fires; the congruence of trends for fires and risks in the personnel and operational staff is weak positive and statistically nonsignificant (r = 0.208 and r = 0.201, respectively; p > 0.05 for both coefficients).
Conclusion. Occupational injuries can become manageable only if all injuries are taken into account and a wide range of concerned professionals (firefighters, managers, engineers, doctors, etc.) are involved in the analysis of their causes.

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