Oct. 28 marks National First Responders Day, a day in which we honor police, firefighters, paramedics and others who put their lives on the line for the rest of our nation’s citizens.
National First Responders Day has been officially recognized since 2017 when Congress passed a bipartisan resolution. While it was made official in 2017, the resolution began taking shape in 2013 after a push from Sean Collier, whose brother Andrew died while on duty in the Boston Marathon bombing.
There are millions of first responders throughout the United States. According to DataUSA, there are about 790,000 police officers and those officers help for an estimated 240 million 9-1-1 calls throughout the country.
The National Fire Protection Association estimates there are about 373,000 full-time firefighters and 682,000 volunteer firefighters. Those firefighters fight a fire roughly every 24 seconds.
Additionally, the National Registry of Emergency Technicians estimates there are about 416,000 nationally certified EMS personnel. Those 416,000 serve more than 22 million patients each year.