CVFD Training – Records & Reports

SFFMA Training Objectives:18-01.01 – 18-01.04

2

Objectives

• Know the NFPA standards that pertain to uniform reporting

• Know and understand the guiding concepts for a uniform reporting system

• Know what the different types of fire reporting systems are

• Know and understand the different elements of a fire reporting system

• Know what NFIRS stands for and what its objectives are

3

Objectives Cont…

• Understand NFIRS background• Know what the basic NFIRS report forms are• Understand the benefit of NFIRS to firefighters• Understand the flow of information with

NFIRS

4

Reports and RecordsWhat Is the Reason We Have Standardized Reports and Records That Contain Common

Elements

It gives us the ability to have a uniform coding system for fire and other emergency reporting and record keeping

5

NFPA 901Standard Classification for Incident Reporting and Fire

Protection Data

Scope of 901- describes and defines: 1.Data elements 2.Classifications used by many departments

to describe fire damage potential and experience during incidents.

6

NFPA 901Standard Classification for Incident Reporting and Fire

Protection Data

Purpose of 901:NFPA 901 provides a common language for the collection of the following:

1) pre-incident information (e.g.. fire defense features).

2) fire and other emergency incident data.3) post- incident damage assessments.

7

NFPA 901Standard Classification for Incident Reporting and Fire

Protection Data

• Objectives.Only through the analysis of data gathered at the time of emergency incidents can an intelligent approach be made to solve problems caused by these incidents.

Because of this need, there must be a common language for the description of the community and the fire protection in place as well as the emergency incident information.

8

NFPA 901Standard Classification for Incident Reporting and Fire

Protection Data

Major objectives of a uniform reporting system:• To provide a means for the collection of required

information.• To provide local fire service management with

information to increase its effectiveness.• To provide a pre-fire inventory of property to

track future needs.• To provide uniform data to regional, national, and

international fire and emergency organizations.

9

Concepts For A Fire Reporting

System• The need for information and the capability to collect

data is not the same for all of the fire services.

• Each incident reporting agency must be compatible with other agencies.

• To assist a fire service organization that wishes to build its own fire reporting system and to a uniform language between agencies, several guiding concepts have to be developed.

10

Concepts For A Fire Reporting System

The guiding concepts are:• Commitment• Feedback• Simplicity• Raise Questions• Use words• Report all incidents

11

Commitment

• Any fire reporting system should be based on commitment by the entire organization.

• Imposition of a particular reporting system without total commitment by the organization may lead to inaccurate results.

12

Feedback

• The original information from reports, when combined and summarized, should provide feedback to the reporting units. This will give them access to details that will help them manage the pre-ignition potential in their jurisdiction and also encourage accurate input.

13

Simplicity

• Must be based on a single incident record (file) on each fire service incident.

• Contents of that file will depend on the complexity of the incident and on the amount of follow-up information needed to understand that incident.

• Each report should be geared to what that person can gather within his/her normal duties.

14

Raise Questions

• Any effective system should reveal both areas for action and areas for special study.

• Thus, a basic system should raise important questions, not try to give answers to all pre-conceived questions.

• Special studies should be conducted to answer “one-time” questions or areas of special concern.

15

Use Words

• The original report from the officer in charge should be in his/her own words, accurately describing the situation he/she actually found. NFPA 901 can be used to aid in word choice.

• Numeric codes may be added by the officer himself or by a central coding office.

16

Report All Incidents

• Every response should be reported regardless of the type or extent of the incident.

• The extent of the fire, the amount of damage, and the type of incident will be captured by the various elements of the incident report.

• An incident occurs when there is a response to any alarm; fire, medical or public service.

17

Fire Reporting Systems• TYPE A-ADVANCED FIRE DEFENSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. Any fire reporting system that

compiles data beyond that required by the Type B fire reporting system.• TYPE B-FIRE DEFENSE M ANAGEMENT SYSTEM. A system of fire reporting

utilizing both property reports(NFPA903m, fire reporting property survey manual) and incident reports (NFPA 902m, fire reporting field incident manual).

• TYPE C-ADVANCED FIRE INCIDENT SYSTEM. Any system compiling data beyond that required by the Type D fire reporting system

• TYPE D-STANDARD FIRE INCIDENT SYSTEM. A fire reporting system utilizing the incident reports (NFPA 902m, fire reporting field incident manual).

• TYPE E-SIMPLIFIED FIRE INCIDENT SYSTEM. A system utilizing certain portions of the basic incident report only. This system must comply with the definitions and coding structure of NFPA 901.

• TYPE F-LOCAL DATA SYSTEM. A system of local type using non-standard definitions or categories.

18

FIRE REPORTING SYSTEM ELEMENTS

• FACT FINDING

-Obtain information (including pre-incident data)-Complete report-Send completed report to processing

19

FIRE REPORTING SYSTEM ELEMENTS

• FACT/DATA PROCESSING-Verify receipt of all reports-Edit (and code) reports-Enter facts-Process facts-Update fact file

20

FIRE REPORTING SYSTEM ELEMENT

• FACT/DATA USE-Summarize data-Analyze the data-Request special analysis-Decide specific action-Act-Analyze results of that action-Return to data analysis and repeat

21

Fact Finding Reports• PRE-INCIDENT DATA: a member of the fire service collects

data any time while on duty at other than an incident.

• THE INCIDENT REPORT: every time the fire service responds to an alarm, an incident occurs.

• UPDATE REPORTS: incident follow-up information may be obtained from in-department sources or out-of-department sources. In both cases, an update report should be filed.

• OTHER SOURCES: the “files” of the town clerk, the assessor’s office, the building department, and the licensing board may contain data that will be useful in providing desired pre-incident information.

22

Fact/data Processing

Once information has been received, it should be processed into a record useful for legal, planning and management purposes.

• The first step involves checking the reports for accuracy and completeness, and then aggregating information about one property or one incident from several reports into a composite.

• The second step involves the creation of a file consisting of the reported surveys and incidents.

23

Fact/data Processing (cont’d)

• A property fact file will constitute the basic source of information about past incidents and current fire defenses of a specific building or land area. The use to which the property fact file is put will determine, to a large extent, the facts that must be recorded on the incident report, and property report.

24

Fact/data Use

• Once a property file has been generated, it has many potential uses. At the least, it should meet the informational needs of all the sectors of the local fire service.

• A specific use is to give feed back to the company officers, giving them data on a specific part of the protected community.

25

Fact/data Use (cont’d)

• A more general use would be to spot trends in fire and other emergency incidents and to provide data for program evaluation and corrective action on a chief officer level.

• Even though a small fire department may have an incidence level that is too low for meaningful statistical evaluation, the data collected may be sufficient to provide information useful in planning.

26

Fact/data Use (cont’d)

• Data combined from surrounding jurisdictions will be even more useful. Department can work to “manage” their local problem.

• Can provide input to those designing and marketing new equipment and to those designing and providing interior finishes and furnishings.

27

Fact/data Use (cont’d)

• Others (educators, medical personnel, architects, fire protection engineers, etc.) can work as a team with the fire service to reduce the fire and other problems as they have been defined by data merged from local property fact files.

28

What the heck is an NFIRS?

National Fire Incident Reporting System

29

NFIRS Background

• In 1972 the President commissioned a document entitled,’America Burning’; it was the first ‘in-depth’ discussion of this country’s fire problem.

• The outgrowth of “America Burning” was the National Fire Prevention and Control Act, Public Law 93-498.

• P.L. 93-498 authorizes the National Fire Data Center (NFDC) in the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) to collect and analyze information on this country’s fire problem.

• To carry out the intentions of the act the NFDC established NFIRS.

30

NFIRS Background

• NFIRS has two objectives:1. Help state and local governments develop fire reporting and analysis capability of their own.

2. Obtain data that can be used to more accurately assess and subsequently combat the fire problem at the national level.

31

NFIRS Background (cont’d)

The NFIRS reporting format is based on the following:

1. NFPA 901 (1976 version) (Uniform Coding for Fire Protection).

2. The 1981 codes for Fire Service Casualty Reporting.

3. The 1990 codes for Hazardous Materials Reporting.

32

NFIRSIntroduction

• NFIRS – a tool used to report and maintain computerized records of fires and other fire dept. activities in a uniform manner.

• The system uses a series of basic phrases with code numbers to describe incidents.

• Most current version of NIFRS (5.0) was release in January 1999. It includes all fire department activity on a national scale.

33

NFIRSIntroduction (Cont…)

• System provides data for the analysis of fires to detect trends on a local, state and nationwide basis. The resulting information is used to help accomplish the primary goal of the fire service, which is…

• The reduction of the needless loss of life and property by fire.

34

NFIRS Report Forms

Six (6) basic forms are used; some by local and state agencies; others are used by the state NFIRS data collection agency

The forms are:NFIRS-1,or “NFIRS Incident Report” - describes each incident.

NFIRS-2, or “NFIRS Civilian Casualty Report”- used to report injuries or deaths to civilians or other emergency personnel (e.g. police, ambulance attendants, etc…)

35

NFIRS Report Forms(Cont...)

• NFIRS-3, or “NFIRS Fire Service Casualty Report” - Reports injuries or deaths of fire service personnel that occur in conjunction with any incident response.

• NFIRS-4, or “Fire Department Identification Report”, contains information that the state program manager must collect for each fire department reporting on NFIRS

36

NFIRS Report Forms(Cont...)

• NFIRS-5, or “NFIRS Report of Submitted Incidents” information that the State may use to balance the number of incidents in the computer with the number of actual report forms submitted

• NFIRS-6, or “NFIRS User Form” – used exclusively by the State.

37

The Benefit of Using Forms

• Written descriptions of identical events vary from person to person.

• Different terminology could be used or some aspects will not be included.

• Therefore, the purpose of the forms is to insure that fires, other incidents and casualties are described in a similar manner regardless of which firefighter records them.

38

What Is the Benefit of NFIRS to Firefighters?

• Patterns emerge from the analysis of data. This is certainly true with fire incident data.

• Accurate and uniform recording of information about fires and other incidents can help departments in a number of ways:- Help focus on current problems.- Predict future problems in their communities.- Help measure whether current programs are working.

39

How NFIRS WorksFlow of Information

1. The department collects data in a common format using NFIRS 1,2,3,4 or 5.

2. Each form is checked for completeness and accuracy.

3. Data is entered into a computer and a tape is then sent to the State office.

4. At the state level, the data is rechecked for quality control purposes.

5. Quarterly data is sent to the National Fire Data Center.

40

NFIRS Today• NFIRS is the worlds largest, national, annual

database of fire incident information.

• As of July 1998, 42 states and the District of Columbia report NFIRS data.

• 31 fire departments with a population protected of over 500,000 participate in the NFIRS.

41

NFIRS Today (cont’d)

• 14,000 of the more than 30,000 fire departments use NFIRS (almost 50%).

• An estimated 44% of ALL fires that fire departments respond to are captured in NFIRS.

• Participating departments report an average of one million fires each year.

42

NFIRS Today (cont’d)

NFIRS data - used at all levels of government. • Local level- information is being used for setting

priorities and targeting resources.• State level- NFIRS has been used to justify state

budgets and helped in the passage of bills on fireworks and arson.

• Nationally- the consumer products safety commission has used NFIRS to help identify hazardous products.

43

Summary

• “Data can save lives” …. unfortunately, the opposite is true - data can kill. Critical decisions affecting fire and life safety are being made every day. These decisions are being based on what are believed to be “the facts” …. and those “facts” are the result of conclusions drawn from the data YOU ARE - or are not - REPORTING …. ACCURATELY.

Something to think about?