THE NEW NATIONAL FIRE INCIDENT REPORTING SYSTEM
BY STEVEN T. WORLEY
According to the National Fire Data Center of the United States Fire Administration (USFA), “fire kills thousands of Americans each year, injures hundreds of thousands, destroys billions of dollars in property, and costs tens of billions of dollars overall, but mayors and city managers, school officials, the media, and the general public still are largely unaware of the magnitude of these numbers. Their lack of awareness and failure to realize the seriousness of fire to communities and the country are factors in keeping the U.S. fire problem one of the worst in the world per capita.”
The United States has made much progress in the past decade, but what does the future hold? As judgments are made on how to reduce fire losses, what information resources will be at hand to aid the decision makers? Will the information systems be adequate and accurate enough to guide us to the best solutions?
The USFA and the National Fire Information Council (NFIC) have been working jointly over the past decade to produce a new National Fire Incident Reporting System, called “NFIRS 5.0.” It is believed that the innovative system will provide the guidance needed to reduce the frequency and severity of fires and other emergencies and decrease the number of injuries and deaths suffered by firefighters and those we protect.
DEVELOPMENT
How many times have we been faced with solving a problem and failed to consider the impact on the person charged with actually doing the work? Throughout the development of the new NFIRS 5.0 National Fire Incident Reporting System, the committee members involved kept firefighters in mind. Would the information gained help local fire departments? Will firefighters attempt to provide consistent, accurate responses if we go down this path? A commonly asked question was, “Can an everyday firefighter answer that?” If it was felt that the typical firefighter wouldn`t have a clue, then the data element was tossed. In my eight years of involvement in this project, the answer to this question settled debates many times.
The existing system was known to be troublesome to many firefighters. The complexity of some data elements resulted in many questions being answered with one statement. When faced with long lists of choices, many firefighters chose fast and easy ways to get the report done.
One change in NFIRS 5.0 is the concept of “more questions, fewer choices.” Complexity is therefore replaced by simplicity. The fixed property use of NFIRS 4.0 has been replaced by multiple questions. There are now about 150 selections for property type instead of more than 600. When combined with the on-site material or product information, the facility can be easily described. As our society changes, so does the way we do business. Who would have ever guessed that we would have high-piled stock grocery and discount stores? The adaptability of NFIRS 5.0 allows for the flexibility needed to adapt to changing conditions.
One great idea generated during the development process was the use of the “National code plus one” concept. There was a tremendous challenge to design a system that could fit everyone`s needs without overwhelming firefighters. The specifications for NFIRS 5.0 require that for each data element there be an additional digit that the state or local fire department can use to break down a given choice further.
For example, the type of apparatus or resource used is a two-digit number. An engine is code “11.” A state or local department could decide to further describe the engine by pump size, water tank volume, four-wheel drive, foam capability, and so on. The code 11 can be expanded by adding a suffix alphanumeric character. Locally, the choices could range from 110-119 to 11A-11Z, or an expansion to 36 possible choices. Only the first two digits will be reviewed and reported by the USFA. Any department choosing to use this expansion of codes should first coordinate with its state program manager.
Special studies fields are also available for local, state, or federal use when circumstances dictate the need for a short-term collection of data. The developers of NFIRS 5.0 knew that there are times when “food on stove” fires are reported as smoke scares to avoid the volume of paperwork required. Former NFIC President Stephen Morash, of the Boston (MA) Fire Department, pushed hard for the acceptance of what we now call “abbreviated reporting” to address this issue. If a department chooses to allow it, an incident commander will be able to submit a shortened report for situations where the fire does no flame damage beyond the noncombustible container. If flame damage from a “food on stove” fire is confined to the food, then officers will be able to use only the basic form. Information on losses due to smoke damage, injuries, successful smoke detector operation, and other basic data elements will be reported, but the reporting officer will not have to complete the fire and structure fire modules.
Small spills of common hazardous materials can also be documented using only the basic module. Detailed information will be given only for the serious haz-mat incidents.
TOOLS FOR MANAGERS
NFIRS 5.0 is an all-incident reporting system. It is intended to be a part of the fire chief`s arsenal of management tools. The additional optional modules give the chief the ability to add to his information resources as local needs dictate. Fire chiefs will be able to expand the magnitude of comparative analysis to include all incident data. Large and small departments can compare themselves with departments of similar size.
Reporting multiple actions taken will more thoroughly describe the productivity of responders. Providing extinguishment and emergency medical care at a haz-mat incident is not unusual. Now, your data collection system can help you take the credit you deserve.
How often does your staff follow up on the incident report and modify the cause of ignition after the investigation is complete? The initial report may be that a fire is under investigation. A choice now available is “cause undetermined after investigation.”
The fire suppression factors data element can be of great help to a manager when months or years after the incident questions start pouring in from the attorneys. Factors that can be documented include various reasons for delayed response or delay in delivering water supply; construction factors such as balloon construction, use of wood or light metal trusses, horizontal or vertical openings, collapse; acts of omission such as doors left open, fire door blocked, code violation; presence of special hazards such as excessive fuel load, high rack storage, radioactive materials, biohazards, cryogenics; weather factors; and presence of burglar bars.
The building status data element allows reporting whether a vacant building was secured or unsecured. Channeling the reports to your city`s code-compliance department may prevent future activity at that address.
For the first time, there is a way to measure severity other than level of alarm and dollar loss. The number of stories damaged by flame allows an incident commander to determine how many stories suffered from 1 to 24 percent, 25 to 49 percent, 50 to 74 percent, and 75 to 100 percent flame damage.
A new data element popular with fire marshals is the number of sprinkler heads operating. This bit of data can be used to document the need for a follow-up inspection by the prevention staff. Questions of whether the sprinkler system is appropriate for the hazard can be answered.
If your jurisdiction provides CPR training for the public, there is now a tool to measure whether an arrest was witnessed and whether bystander CPR was performed.
TOOLS FOR FIRE AND BUILDING CODE DEVELOPERS
Fire codes and building codes change over time. A current rule affecting an apartment with 16 dwelling units could be applied to a building with 12 dwelling units in the future. The data element collecting estimated number of dwelling units will help code developers study the potential impact of their decisions.
It was not considered possible to develop an information system that firefighters could handle and that would also provide the level of detail needed for code developers. However, the data element “fire suppression factors” can be a useful tool to assist researchers in identifying unusual cases.
MUTUAL AID REPORTING IMPROVED
The data element that gave the NFIRS 5.0 developers the greatest challenge was “Aid Given or Received.” To document the departments involved in an incident, and at the same time avoid counting the reports as multiple incidents, was a daunting task. The end result is that if you gave aid, then you identify the receiving department`s fire department identification number (FDID), state, and incident number. A way to avoid double counting resources and injuries is built into the design. Every department has an FDID, even if it is not reporting incidents to the state. That information is available from your state program manager.
Y2K-COMPLIANT
NFIRS 5.0 is Y2K-compliant. It can be the answer for departments that need to adapt existing software.
TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE
The following bullets of information describing the capabilities of the USFA software application are found on the USFA`s Web site www.usfa.fema.gov/newnfirs/:
States can edit and operate their databases through the federal Web site, if desired, as if the data and the software resided on their own PCs. Data can be transferred to the states interactively on demand. Transfers will entail part or all of a state`s data as needed.
The client/server national Internet application will be made available to states and metro departments for installation on request.
Maintenance and updates to the system and its software may be greatly eased, since update distribution and system maintenance can be accomplished through the Internet.
Data can be easily packaged on the WWW for the use of states, other organizations, and the public.
WWW-based on-line reporting, queries, and Geographical Information System (GIS) services can make the system`s utility far more powerful than a PC-based system residing at state offices. States can share their most recent data on particular types of incidents as they desire with departments, other states, organizations, and other parties.
System design will allow states and metros the flexibility to continue to process incidents in a way similar to the way they do currently or to take advantage of a networked Internet system approach as they desire.
PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION TOOLS
It is important for departments to be able to access historical incident data using NFIRS 5.0. For this purpose, the USFA and NFIC developed a data conversion tool that can be used to map 4.1 data to 5.0 data. The data will be marked as having been converted from a 4.1 data source.
For states that decide to support use of the client/server national Internet application, a data entry tool has been developed that allows users of all experience levels to enter NFIRS 5.0-compliant incident information.
The software developers have also created a data validation tool. A delimited flat file from any source can be validated. The program will also keep a log file for each incident file, showing fatal, critical, and warning messages.
A program administration tool is also available for program managers to maintain requirements for special studies fields, Plus-One codes, state rules and actions, state and local information needs and to build on the national standard.
REFERENCE GUIDE
An NFIRS 5.0 Quick Reference Guide–a condensed version of the NFIRS 5.0 Handbook–has been developed. The guide does not include graphics or examples. It is available for download at the USFA Web site.
SOFTWARE
Departments are encouraged to shop carefully for NFIRS 5.0 software. The USFA has established a certification process that tests transaction files generated from vendor software to ensure that they are fully compliant with the new NFIRS 5.0 standard. Be sure to confirm that your software vendor is offering certified software. The specifications have been written so that a department can use NFIRS 5.0 on any platform–PC, Mac, mainframe, or other. For any department writing its own software, it will be important to self-certify in the same manner as a vendor. The USFA Web site for vendor certification is www.nfirs.fema.gov/.
CORE MODULES
NFIRS 5.0 has been designed as an all-incident reporting system. It has five core modules and six optional modules. The design allows for additional modules to be included as the need is identified. The core modules are similar to what many firefighters use currently in NFIRS 4.0 or 4.1.
A basic module is used on every incident to gather response data such as date, times, address, incident type, mutual aid, actions taken, numbers of responding units and personnel, numbers of injuries and deaths, estimates of loss and value, property use, and other factors. For many responses, the basic module will be the only one used.
A fire module is used only for fire incidents and collects property details, on-site materials, ignition factors, cause of ignition, factors contributing to ignition, equipment descriptions, mobile property data, and a very useful data element called “fire suppression factors.”
The structure fire module describes the structure fires that occurred in the United States in 1997. Given are the data elements for structure type, building status, building height, main floor size, fire origin and spread, number of stories damaged by flame, materials contributing, detection systems, and automatic extinguishment systems.
The civilian fire casualty module has changed considerably. It collects information to identify the person by name, sex, age, race, and affiliation. It also describes severity, cause of injury, human factors contributing, other factors contributing, and the activity in which the victim was engaged when injured; locations at the time of the incident and times of injury and start of incident; the story at which the injury occurred, the primary apparent symptom, and the primary part of body injured.
The fire service casualty module collects similar identification information, plus an identification number. It also classifies the firefighter`s usual assignment, physical condition just prior to injury, severity, activity at time of injury, primary apparent symptom, primary area of body injured, cause of injury, factors contributing to injury, object involved, where the injury occurred, the story at which it occurred, and the specific location where the injury occurred. This part of the incident report goes on to identify specifics about protection equipment that failed and contributed to the injury.
OPTIONAL MODULES
For many departments, more than 75 percent of their calls are for emergency medical service. For the first time, an EMS module that departments can use as the core of a patient form is available. It is not intended to replace a patient form. Only nonconfidential data elements are collected for storage in a national database. This report identifies the number of patients involved in the incident and specific data for each patient. It includes time arrived at patient, time of patient transfer, provider impression/assessment, age, race, human factors, other factors, body sites of injuries, injury types, cause of illness/injury, procedures used, safety equipment used or deployed, cardiac arrest information, provider descriptors, patient status, and disposition.
A revised haz-mat module details four methods of material identification, container type, container capacity, amount released, physical state, what the material is released into and from, population density, area affected, area evacuated, numbers of people and buildings evacuated, actions taken, cause of release, factors contributing to the release, factors affecting mitigation, equipment and mobile property involved, disposition, and number of civilian casualties.
For the first time, there is a wildland fire module. It can be used in lieu of the fire module when appropriate. In lieu of an address, latitude and longitude can be used to identify the location. Additionally, the incident commander can report the area type, weather information, numbers of buildings threatened and ignited, primary crops burned, property management, National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) fuel model at origin, information on a person involved, distance from a right-of-way, and descriptors of the fire behavior at the point of initial attack.
Two new modules will help managers track crews` and individuals` activities. An apparatus or resources module identifies emergency vehicles or equipment used at the incident. It is used to report dates and times of dispatch, arrival, and clear; number of people in attendance; main use of the resource; and up to four actions taken.
If a department chooses to use the personnel module, the apparatus or resources module is not needed. The same information can be captured, plus the ID number of the responders, name, rank, and up to four actions taken for each person.
Another new module is for arson reporting and documentation of juvenile firesetter activity. Agency information with case numbers and federal identifier will allow tracking of the incident in law enforcement databases. Data collected in the arson module will be passed on to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) National Arson Repository for use of investigators nationally. This module was a joint effort of the USFA and ATF to meet the ATF`s congressionally mandated and funded task. The arson module collects case status, availability of material first ignited, suspected motivation factors, apparent group involvement, entry method, extent of fire involvement on arrival, incendiary devices, ignition/delay device, fuel, other factors, property ownership, initial observations, and the laboratory used.
The juvenile firesetter portion describes the age, gender, race, family type, motivation/risk factors, and disposition. These factors were judged to be collectible by firefighters and useful to intervention specialists for identification of those who may need some level of assistance.
The contributors to the development of NFIRS 5.0 represented states, metros, small departments, the wildland fire service, the medical service, information partners, federal agencies, law enforcement, and vendors. All will take pride in this achievement for years to come as the use of NFIRS 5.0 spreads across the globe, helping emergency service providers reduce life and property losses.
STEVEN T. WORLEY is a 26-year veteran of the San Antonio (TX) Fire Department, serving the past 11 years as an assistant chief. He spent five years as fire marshal and has been the administrative chief for the past six years. In 1991, he became the department`s representative to the National Fire Information Council, was elected to the board of directors in 1995, and was elected president in 1998. For the past eight years, he has been deeply involved in the development of NFIRS 5.0.
