Three Reasons Why the National Fire Incident Reporting System is Important
The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) is the largest database of fire incidents in the world. Departments use the system to uniformly report on the full range of their activities, from fire to EMS to equipment involved in the response.
In the last 10 years, more than 216 million incidents have been reported in NFIRS to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA). More than 25 million incidents were reported for 2015. This means that an incident is reported in NFIRS every 1.2 seconds. An emergency medical/rescue incident is reported every 2 seconds, and a fire incident is reported every 27 seconds. Fire departments in all states and the District of Columbia participate in NFIRS.
Why it matters
NFIRS is important to the fire service for many reasons. Here are three:
1: Quantifying what we do
The fire service must quantify what it does. We are connected to data in many of our day-to-day activities (e.g., communicating, relaxing, traveling and working). Everything we do seems to be data-driven. This data is collected and leaves behind a data footprint of our activities. For the fire service, NFIRS leaves sets of data footprints behind that track and quantify the activities of fire departments in the U.S. NFIRS documents the emergency and non-emergency response activities of fire departments while allowing the fire service to tell its story in an objective manner through its data.
2: Speaking the same data language
The fire service should speak the same language when comparing and sharing its data. Data is an effective component in communication. The fire service uses NFIRS as an acceptable, common and proven way of communicating because NFIRS is the national standard that fire incident reporting software uses to collect and report the emergency response activities of the fire service. It is based on the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards that are overseen by the Technical Committee on Fire Reporting. Approximately 23,930 fire departments—79 percent of all fire departments in the U.S.—participate in NFIRS. This common language—NFIRS—allows the fire service and other users of NFIRS to document, analyze and report their data.
3: Serving as a business asset
The fire service must understand that NFIRS data is a critical business asset. An asset is something of value that adds worth. NFIRS data is an asset because it allows users of NFIRS to identify trends, quantify activities, determine causes, plan the deployment of limited resources, and help in the reduction of loss of life and property caused by fires.
How it works
Now that you know why it matters, let’s address how to make it happen for your department.
NFIRS software is available as free desktop and Web-based applications from the USFA or as NFIRS standard-compliant products you can buy from fire software vendors.
After responding to an incident, a fire department completes the appropriate NFIRS modules. Each module collects a common set of information that describes the nature of the call, the actions firefighters took in response to the call, and the end results, including firefighter and civilian casualties and a property loss estimate.
The fire department forwards its data to the state agency responsible for NFIRS data. The agency gathers data from all participating departments in the state and reports the compiled data to USFA.
The USFA recommends that fire departments submit their data to state NFIRS program offices at monthly intervals. If no runs were made during the month, submit a report of “no activity” to your state for the reporting period. States should submit NFIRS data to the USFA on a quarterly basis but monthly submission of data is encouraged.
Fight fires with facts
The fire service responds to all types of emergency and nonemergency incidents. The full effect of those responses is only realized if the incidents are documented, reported, shared and analyzed. The fire service’s tool for achieving this full effect is NFIRS. NFIRS data works as an effective tool for fighting fires with facts.
For more information, please contact the USFA at (888) 382-3827 or [email protected].
MARION A. LONG is a fire program specialist for the U.S. Fire Administration's (USFA) National Fire Data Center. Long has worked with the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) for more than 30 years. His primary job duties are to promote the timely collection of high-quality emergency response data from fire departments, to identify emergent issues, to provide technical support to local, state, and tribal governments, and to promote the use of NFIRS.
Marion A. Long
Marion A. Long is a fire program specialist for the U.S. Fire Administration's (USFA) National Fire Data Center. He has worked with the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) for more than 30 years. His primary job duties are to promote the timely collection of high-quality emergency response data from fire departments, to identify emergent issues, to provide technical support to local, state, and tribal governments, and to promote use of NFIRS.
