Requirements to be a fire fighter are ridiculous now. 240 hours of FF training, then 160 hours EMT. And that's just the basics. It is very hard for a volunteer to manage anymore. As for injuries/deaths it has been a pretty flat line, averaging around 100 per year save for 2001. But there are more fire fighters than ever, doing even more stuff, so to keep the total injuries and particularly deaths at a flat rate is pretty good. When my dad joined in 85 the department ran about 20 calls a year, and that was only fires of some type. Now we respond to around 700 calls a year at my volunteer dept for EMS, MVA's, various rescue (high/low angle, confined space, water, extrication) and hazmat, all in addition to fires, and those numbers are only going up. My career dept responded to 1600 calls last year.
NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Map
Firefighter fatalities in the United States
NFPA statistics - Firefighter deaths by cause and nature of injury
Those links were on the first page of a google search. If you really want some more info I can find all sorts of stuff for you.
Duane
