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NFIRS Reporting Guidelines

To facilitate the timely analysis of the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) data, the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) has developed guidelines on when states and fire departments should submit their incident data.

Important points

  • Fire departments should report their incident data as soon as possible to their state agencies.
  • States should release their data quarterly to facilitate the USFA quality assurance process.
  • For 2024 incident data, the reporting deadline is April 1, 2025. For 2025 incident data, the reporting deadline is December 31, 2025.
  • If incidents are not in the national database, and are not released, then they cannot be included on the public data release.

State guidelines

States should submit NFIRS data to the USFA on a quarterly basis, but monthly submission of data is encouraged.

Reporting NFIRS data to the USFA consists of two steps:

  1. Submitting data to USFA.
  2. Releasing the data into the public domain.

States release their data by using the Bulk Release utility on the eNFIRS webpage. Contact the NFIRS Support Center if you need assistance by email at FEMA-NFIRSHELP@fema.dhs.gov or by telephone at 888-382-3827.

Annual data submission deadline

For 2024 incident data, the data submission deadline is April 1. States may revise, correct and resubmit data to USFA for the previous calendar year until that date. After April 1, we will compile and release the annual national NFIRS database for the previous calendar year into the public domain.

Fire department guidance

Your state NFIRS office will set the rules on when and how you should report your incident data; however, at a minimum, the USFA recommends that fire departments submit their data to their state NFIRS program offices at monthly intervals.

Departments using the USFA software or web-based application can submit their incident data as they perform the data entry process to provide real-time reporting of incident data to their state. If your department has no incidents during the month, you should submit a report of “no activity” to your state for the reporting period.