The Fire Service Needs More Complete Fire Data Reporting

One of my fire service colleagues, Will Potter, a Fire Driver and Records Management System Administrator for the Carrboro (NC) Fire Rescue Department, posted this on LinkedIn today:

The United States Fire Administration (USFA) released the 19th Edition of Fire in the United States. This report is a statistical overview of the fire problem in the United States.

Fire in the United States is primarily based upon NFIRS (National Fire Incident Reporting System) data, and the accuracy of this report relies on the accuracy of nearly 1.3 million NFIRS incident reports entered by fire departments across the nation. What are you doing to ensure NFIRS reports submitted by your department are accurate, valid, complete, timely, and that the data is entered consistently?

Well, for starters, we could get 100% of the fire departments in the U.S. to report their NFIRS data to the U.S. Fire Administration.

We don’t have that today. Approximately 50% of fire departments in the United States aren’t submitting fire data to NIFRS; it’s a voluntary process and they chose not to participate. The USFA has taken a huge step to increase NFIRS participation by requiring that a fire department is submitting data to NFIRS as a prerequisite for a department to apply for AFG or SAFER grants.

Regardless of the reason, the fire service and the people we're sworn to protect are the big losers. Proper and complete completion of the NFIRS form by every fire department in the U.S. is vital to the mission and is the key to working for a fire-safe America.

How so? Consider this, every law enforcement agency in the U.S.--from the smallest sheriff’s office in Kentucky to that of the New York City Police Department--is required to submit their crime statistics data to the FBI annually.

In return, the federal government provides the funding for grant funding through the Bureau of Justice Assistance. In 2016, that funding provided $29 billion for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to keep America safe from criminals and terrorists.

Funding also allows DOJ to provide grants and assistance to state and local law enforcement that help put police officers on the beat, equip them with body armor, test backlogged DNA evidence, protect schools and college campuses, and assist victims of violent crime and sexual assault.

In 2016, that funding to local and state law enforcement agencies totaled $3.33 billion.

In 2017, federal funding for the fire service was $345 million for AFG and $345 million for SAFER. That’s $2.63 billion less than law enforcement received.

In 2013, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded a grant to the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) for the stated purpose of making significant improvements to the completeness and accuracy of data entered into NFIRS.

NASFM, through its Fire Research and Education Foundation, conducted a project, Conquering the Unknown: Addressing Undetermined and Missing Origin and Cause Entries in Fire Incident Reporting. That project’s scope included:

• Why are so many NFIRS reports submitted with Undetermined or Missing in the data entry fields applicable to a fire’s origin and cause?
• Are there systemic issues with NFIRS and the report data fields and protocols for data entry that contribute to the issue of Unknown or Missing entries?
• What are the characteristics of good NFIRS data entry by fire departments and how can we categorize these “best practices” and promulgate them across the fire service?

I was part of that group and my task was to create an e-book for fire officers and firefighters to help address the projects goals. These “toolboxes”, along with the entire project's data repository, can be accessed at: http://www.firemarshals.org/Fire-Incident-Data-Collection-Research-&-Resources

Let's make 2018 the year that we get 100% of fire departments reporting their fire data to NFIRS! As the adage goes, "A rising tide floats all boats."