By: Kelly Pithan, Lead Project Manager, Emergent
The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) has been the USFA’s primary incident reporting system for decades. Each year, NFIRS gathers information from approximately 30 million incidents, generating crucial insights to enhance public safety and emergency preparedness all in one database used by over 22,000 departments.
Established in the late 1970s as a result of the America Burning Report, NFIRS underscored the necessity for a national system to collect and analyze fire data, leading to its inception. Since then, the system has seen minor modifications and enhancements but has not kept up with the industry in terms of interoperability and ease of use. NFIRS has struggled, especially in large-scale incidents, to handle the quantity, quality, and timeliness required by modern departments. As a result, the USFA will soon replace the NFIRS with a brand new system called NERIS (National Emergency Response Information System). NERIS has been designed from the ground up to meet the demands of modern departments and promises to be much more effective and useful than NFIRS in the coming years. The USFA explains more about NERIS and what you can expect from it here.
Whatever their form, these reporting systems serve as the backbone of strategic planning in fire safety and emergency response. By offering a granular understanding of fire incidents, they aid policymakers, emergency responders, and fire departments in tailoring more effective prevention measures, response strategies, and public safety protocols.
At Emergent, NFIRS and NERIS are part of our daily speech. Whether we came from or to the fire service and emergency responder community, our team is observing in real-time how software solutions are transforming incident reporting.
Should you be on the hunt for a solution in your own department or are just here to learn more, let’s dive into some key pieces.
What can you expect from NERIS?
The benefits NERIS will provide once it arrives next year are diverse and have far-reaching effects on both individual departments and national fire response as a whole:
- Computing Power: NERIS will provide substantially improved computing power for faster querying and an overall more efficient system. This will also help to make data contribution much easier and more streamlined.
- New and Improved Analytics: While the details are still sparse, NERIS also promises to deliver more useful and intelligent analytic tools to help in data-driven decision-making.
- Broad Integration: One of the most substantial improvements of NERIS will be the integration of many data sources. NERIS is designed with the modern fire department in mind and consequently will support integration with IoT devices, GIS systems, CAD systems, and many others to help ensure that your department has all the incident data it needs in one place.
Software Designed for Fire Reporting
In the digital age, advanced software solutions have become indispensable for managing the vast amount of data departments deal with. Leading-edge software companies like Emergent are revolutionizing the way reporting is carried out, introducing significant automation into the process.
Emergent's solutions reduce the cognitive load on first responders in emergencies by automatically capturing and organizing data relevant to the incident without interrupting their task at hand. This automation not only accelerates the data collection process but also minimizes human error, contributing to the accuracy and reliability of the reported data.
Looking for more specifics? Emergent's cutting-edge fire reporting software comes equipped with features that make it a must-have tool for any fire department:
- Compliance with reporting standards: Emergent's software adheres to the rigorous standards set by NFIRS, guaranteeing that all reported data aligns with required formats. This compliance ensures the accuracy and consistency of the information. Emergent will also ensure full compliance with future systems such as NERIS.
- Intuitive User Interface: The software developed by Emergent is highly intuitive and specially designed to simplify data entry and extraction. This ease of use reduces the administrative burden, freeing personnel to concentrate more on their core duties.
- Live Tactical Board: Emergent’s Live Tactical Board provides Incident Commanders with key situational awareness of an incident. The Tactical Board is fed with valuable telemetry data from your fleet in real time, allowing you to make more timely and informed decisions. This feature in particular distinguishes us from the competition, delivering an unprecedented level of incident information at the touch of a button.
- Seamless Software Integration: Emergent's NFIRS reporting software is built with interoperability in mind, facilitating seamless integration with a variety of other systems. In contrast to many competitors, Emergent is committed to providing this service at no extra cost. We firmly believe that ensuring data interoperability should not pose any barriers for the fire service.
- Advanced Reporting and Analytics: With robust reporting and analytic capabilities, Emergent's software allows effortless generation of incident reports and thorough analysis of patterns and trends. This feature enables your team to make well-informed, data-driven decisions. Do you already have an analytics program in place? No problem - we can send the data there.
Emergent is revolutionizing fire reporting by offering an end-to-end solution that eases the reporting process, ensures compliance, and provides insightful analytics. These core features are essential to any reporting software and should provide a reliable template for choosing an effective software solution.
Ready to see Emergent live? Reach out to our team with your questions and request a demo today.
