FireLink

Granthamvfd said:

This has been in the new a lot. If a Firefighter Dies of a heart attack a couple of hours after a fire call. Should it be a in the line of duty death, and should the family receive the benefits of LOD death.

Ya, look through the post Peterman posted in honor of his Dad. It lists all L.A. FF's that died. Almost all were heart and cancer. Some were pneumonia. All i'm sure were complications from the job before the days of SCBA's. I think anyone that dies on duty should definitely be fully covered. There should also be a buffer time after a shift or fire, but many die 24 hours after a call too. So we should just all be covered 100% in exchange for doing the job.

Strange shifts, late calls, stress and life style are all parts of the job. These things along with all the elements you are ingesting in your systems would definately qualify you for in the line of duty death. That is just my opinion. Although, I am also a proponent of staying in shape and eating healthy to minimize those risks.

This is from the IAFF website:

"The Public Safety Officers Benefits Act, (42 USC 3796, Public Law 94-430) became law on September 29, 1976. The legislation provided for a $50,000 death benefit for fire fighters (paid and volunteer) and law enforcement officers that died in the line-of-duty (emergency or non-emergency) from a traumatic injury. On December 15, 2003 the Act was amended to cover deaths from heart attack and stroke occurring in the line-of-duty. The Act does not cover deaths resulting from occupational illness or pulmonary disease unless a traumatic injury is a substantial factor to the death.

"The Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003 (HHA) amends the PSOB Act and was signed into Law on December 15, 2003. If a public safety officer dies as a direct and proximate result of a heart attack or stroke, that officer shall be presumed to have died as the direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained in the line of duty unless such presumption is not overcome by competent medical evidence to the contrary.

"The law requires that the officer, while on duty engaged in a situation, and such engagement involved non-routine stressful or strenuous physical law enforcement, fire suppression, rescue, hazardous material response, emergency medical services, prison security, disaster relief, or other emergency response activity or participated in a training exercise, and such participation involved non-routine stressful or strenuous physical activity. Any claim for non-routine stressful or strenuous physical activities will be excluded if such actions are of a clerical, administrative, or non-manual nature.

"Further, the law requires that the officer died as a result of a heart attack or stroke suffered:

- while engaging or participating in such activity as described above,

- while still on that duty after so engaging or participating in such an activity, or

- not later than 24 hours after so engaging or participating in such an activity. "

We have to be careful when we say "according to the law." As government entities, fire departments have specific laws that pertain to them, but the legal aspects of the fire service are never simple.

Fireemsgrrl says ...

This is from the IAFF website: "The Public Safety Officers Benefits Act, (42 USC 3796, Public Law 94-430) became law on September 29, 1976. The legislation provided for a $50,000 death benefit for fire fighters (paid and volunteer) and law enforcement officers that died in the line-of-duty (emergency or non-emergency) from a traumatic injury. On December 15, 2003 the Act was amended to cover deaths from heart attack and stroke occurring in the line-of-duty. The Act does not cover deaths resulting from occupational illness or pulmonary disease unless a traumatic injury is a substantial factor to the death. "The Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003 (HHA) amends the PSOB Act and was signed into Law on December 15, 2003. If a public safety officer dies as a direct and proximate result of a heart attack or stroke, that officer shall be presumed to have died as the direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained in the line of duty unless such presumption is not overcome by competent medical evidence to the contrary. "The law requires that the officer, while on duty engaged in a situation, and such engagement involved non-routine stressful or strenuous physical law enforcement, fire suppression, rescue, hazardous material response, emergency medical services, prison security, disaster relief, or other emergency response activity or participated in a training exercise, and such participation involved non-routine stressful or strenuous physical activity. Any claim for non-routine stressful or strenuous physical activities will be excluded if such actions are of a clerical, administrative, or non-manual nature. "Further, the law requires that the officer died as a result of a heart attack or stroke suffered: - while engaging or participating in such activity as described above, - while still on that duty after so engaging or participating in such an activity, or - not later than 24 hours after so engaging or participating in such an activity. " We have to be careful when we say "according to the law." As government entities, fire departments have specific laws that pertain to them, but the legal aspects of the fire service are never simple.

Is the HHSBA thecovered under the US Department of Justice, if so I have done some reading on it in the past and it is a GOOD Thing!  Every department should look in to to it.