Insights \ Health Hits

As occupations go, it's hard to imagine a job more dangerous than firefighting. After all, firefighters have to rush into burning buildings and fight unpredictable wildfires.

It may be hard to imagine, but there are plenty of jobs that are more dangerous. More than 4,000 people die in the U.S. every year on the job [LINK:http://bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.t02.htm]. The highest percentage of fatalities occur in occupations like commercial fishing, construction and trucking.

Of course, that doesn't mean firefighting is as safe as a desk job--more than 100 firefighters die annually on the job, three times higher than the fatality rate for the general working population. What they die from, however, may surprise you.

Most die from cardiovascular events like heart attacks, cardiac arrest or strokes. Researchers at the University of Georgia College of Public Health looked at 213 firefighter deaths investigated by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health between 2004 and 2009; 87 of those deaths were from cardiovascular events.

Researchers say fire departments need to improve medical screening and adopt mandatory fitness and wellness program.