Firefighting is a dangerous job — no doubt about it. Luckily, with the advent of better safety equipment and better and safer structure design, thankfully, the dangers of the job become less with each decade.

The undoubtedly dangerous job has benefited so much from such safety measures that it has not appeared on The Top Ten Most Dangerous Jobs list for decades.

That is a mighty good thing.

To be clear, firefighting IS dangerous, but statistically speaking we have made great gains here. If you are on the personal side of one of those statistics then no list in the world will change the perceived danger, nor should it, vigilance is key in all risky endeavors.

Let’s turn back the clock to early America when practically all dwellings were made of wood, patched with pitch, lit with open flames or rickety vessels of coal oil.

Read More