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National Fire Incident Reporting
System (NFIRS)

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A brief history of fire incident reporting

The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) was a voluntary standard that fire departments used to report their activities, including fires, emergency medical services, severe weather and other calls for emergency services. NFIRS was decommissioned in 2026, and all fire departments now use the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS).

NFIRS was launched in 1975, after the America Burning report (1973) showed a need to collect, analyze and standardize fire data in the United States. The U.S. Fire Administration’s (USFA’s) National Fire Data Center (NFDC) was authorized to lead this charge. Local fire departments and state, tribal and territorial fire marshal offices used NFIRS data to better understand their own fire risks.

By contributing to the National Fire Incident Reporting System, fire departments helped the U.S. Fire Administration:

  • Analyze the nation’s fire problem.
  • Develop national public education campaigns.
  • Recommend codes and standards.
  • Identify consumer product failures.
  • Focus research efforts.
  • Support federal legislation.

After each incident, fire departments completed a report using NFIRS modules. These modules collected information about the incident, the actions taken and the results, including any casualties and property loss.

At first, reports were completed on paper and sent to the USFA for analysis. In 1998, fire departments could submit reports electronically, either directly to the national database or through their state, tribal or territorial authority. In 2020, the NFIRS website was updated so fire departments could submit reports themselves. The website also hosted the Enterprise Data Warehouse, which allowed fire departments to download incident tables and summary statistics. These tools helped fire departments and state, tribal and territorial fire authorities track participation, prepare grants and reduce fire risks. All NFIRS tools were provided free of charge.

NFIRS grew with the fire service, meeting new demands as the world changed. By the end of the program, fire departments from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., tribal nations and other territories submitted over 30 million incident reports each year.

A need was identified for a new system that could record the most important information about how the fire department responded to a call for service, while leveraging geospatial and mobile-first technology and adapting to emerging hazards. This system, NERIS, was launched in 2025 by the Fire Safety Research Institute. You can learn more about NERIS here.

The NFDC thanks all fire departments and state, tribal and territorial fire authorities for contributing incident data for more than 50 years. We look forward to the next era of fire incident reporting as we use NERIS data to continue the USFA mission: to support and strengthen fire and emergency medical services (EMS) and stakeholders to prepare for, prevent, mitigate and respond to all hazards.