State Program Manager
James McKenney

Jim.McKenney@dfs.dps.mo.gov

Missouri Fire Incident Reporting System
Fighting Fire With Facts

NFIRS Data Quality Reports

NFIRS 5.0 Software

Hardware Requirements

FAQ's

Summary Report by Incident Type

Conclusion

NFIRS 5.0 Self Study Available

 

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Division of Fire Safety

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United States Fire Administration



The Missouri Division of Fire Safety has implemented the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS).  Currently there are almost 752 fire departments reporting in our system, this represents 84% of the fire departments in Missouri.

The United States Fire Administration (USFA) has created NFIRS 5.0, an all-incident reporting system, which has data collection and reporting capabilities that can be used at the fire department, state and national levels. 

In an effort to implement and efficiently maintain an incident reporting system all data must be submitted via the internet.  USFA offers, at no cost, NFIRS 5.0 data entry software for the use at the state level and allows distribution to reporting fire departments.  Fire departments can also obtain compatible software from an approved vendor, for a fee.  A list of approved vendors can be obtained from the USFA webstie at www.nfirs.fema.gov.

Fire departments using the USFA software enter data directly to the USFA server, departments using vendor software have several options for forwarding their data; e-mail the data file, mail in a diskette to the state program manager containing the data file, or by using the NFIRS Bulk Import Tool.  More information concerning the Bulk Import Tool follows below.

NFIRS 5.0 Reporting Software and Utilities

USFA has recently released the NFIRS 5.0, version 5.5 level of the Incident Reporting System.   It is very important to always upgrade as soon as possible after new releases to the software are available.  Some upgrade release versions include minor updates that are not critical to the operation of the software and others are more involved and are required to be implemented before any new data can be entered. 

The volume of reports generated nationwide requires the USFA to constantly monitor their reporting system and continually work to stay abreast with ongoing changes in technology.  USFA also works diligently to make their reporting system as user friendly as possible and tries to implement many ideas and suggestions made by their users as feasible. 

Bulk Import Utility
The Bulk Import Tool is an electronic interface utility which allows fire departments using vendor software to submit their data directly to the USFA server.   The Division of Fire Safety highly encourages the use of this program.  If your department is interested in finding out more information please contact Jim McKenney at 573-526-5701.

Summary Output Reporting Utility
The NFIRS 5.0 web based reports utilize Actuate information delivery technology to provide registered users access to summary and statistical information from fire departments and incident data saved to the national database.  Report executables are predefined according to NFIRS 5.0 reporting requirements established by the USFA and do not require the use of the USFA software.  The user will need an active NFIRS 5.0 User Account with the specific reporting permissions assigned.  Users who do not have an active account status or who do not have the reporting permissions will need to contact Jim McKenney at 573-526-5701.  Sample reports are available on the NFIRS site.

Reporting Guidelines (effective January 1, 2004)
USFA has requested that all users of the NFIRS 5.0 system meet the following guidelines for submission of incident data. 
STATE submit data to USFA on a quarterly basis
FIRE DEPARTMENTS submit their data to state NFIRS program offices at monthly intervals.  If your department uses the NFIRS software and no runs were made during the month, a report of "no activity" should be submitted to the state for the reporting period.

NFIRS Website  www.nfirs.fema.gov
This website contains information on current news about NFIRS, reporting guidelines, hardware requirements, summary output reports tool (web based reporting tool), user section (used for registration and downloading of NFIRS software), vendor section, and links to other sites including, USFA, NFIC, FEMA, and NFIRS support center.

Hardware/Software Requirements
Minimum hardware requirements are as follows:
     200 MHz Pentium class
     64 MB memory
     20 MB available space on hard drive
     56 K (V-90) bps modem or TCP/IP Internet Connectivity
     Monitor with 800X600 resolution
     Windows 95-B, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation or higher
     Microsoft Access 97 - if using NFIRS 5.0 in off-line mode

The Division apologizes to the departments who will be unable to meet the technological requirements of the new reporting system.  We are currently researching other avenues and will continue to work toward a goal of all Missouri fire departments participating in this system.

NFIRS Assistance
The Division has established an NFIRS Assistance for those users with INACTIVE or LOCKED user accounts.  The NFIRS system requires users to login at least once every 60 days in order to maintain an ACTIVE user account status.  If an account shows more than 60 days of inactivity the account is flagged INACTIVE and must be reactivated by the NFIRS State Program Manager.  NFIRS has implemented a security feature that results in a LOCKED user account.  If a user tries to login unsuccessfully five times the user account will be LOCKED and the State Progam Manager again is required to reset the account. 

FAQ's
What happens when a fire department does not login in the required time, 60 days, established by USFA?
The user account goes from active to inactive status.  The user must contact the State NFIRS Program Manager at 573-751-2930 to have their user account reactivated.  The user can prevent this by opening their account every month.

Did you forget your password?  What happens when a fire department has five bad login attempts?
The account will be locked if someone tries to login more than five times and fails.  The user must contact the State NFIRS Program Manager at 573-751-2930 to have the account reset.

When a fire department is involved in some type of community service (parade, patrol) and personnel/equipment are being used, what code best reflects what they are doing?
The code that best reflects the activity in this case is "533 - Public service.  Excludes service to governmental agencies (551 or 552)."

A fire department responds to a vehicle fire on the highway and then had a couple of other fires down the road caused by the same vehicle as it drove further down the highway.  Is that an exposure to the first fire or separate fires/incidents?
The additional fires should be classified as exposure fires.

An apparatus arrives at the scene but is cancelled before personnel exit the vehicle.  How should this be coded?
The indicent should be coded as a, "611 - Dispatched and cancelled en-route.  Incident cleared or cancelled prior to arrival of the responding unit."

How would the location of a moving vehicle fire be reported?  Would it be the location when first reported, the location when found by the first arriving unit or the location where it stops?
The location documented should be the location where the vehicle stopped.

How should an uncontained trash fire in a structure that only burns the trash be coded?
The appropriate Incident Type in this case would be, "118 - Trash or rubbish fire in a structure, with no flame damage to structure or it's contents."

How would an incident involving smoke from a chimney misidentified as a hostile fire be reported?

The appropriate Incident Type in this case would be, "651 - Smoke scare, odor of smoke, not steam."

A fire department was called to a pipe bomb in a mailbox incident.  The department did not remove or disarm the explosive, but called the police.  How should this be coded?
The appropriate Incident Type in this case would be, "552 - Police matter.  Includes, incident where fire department is called to a scene that should be handled by the police."

Summary Reports
The following reports are summary and statistical data for the state of Missouri
     2007 - Summary                        2008 - Summary
                Property                                     Property
                Detail                                          Detail
    
     2009 - Summary
                Property
                Detail

Conclusion
NFIRS is continually fine tuning their product to meet the needs of their customers.  Maintaining open lines of communication between the users, the state manager and the USFA staff allows for the elimination of shortfalls and broaden the overall effectiveness of NFIRS.  

The Division would like to thank those departments who are actively participating and encourage other fire departments to participate in the fire incident reporting system, using either NFIRS 5.0 or vendor software.  Only through high levels of participation in the system can we insure Missouri statistics are adequately represented nationally as we continue to fight fire with facts.

 

2/2/2010