Over the past decade there has been a growing appreciation about the importance of fire service data as well as an increasing frustration over the challenges many fire departments face in terms of fully utilizing their data.
In 2016 the national fire service stakeholder organizations asked NFPA to develop and lead a project to develop a new national fire data system. With generous support from the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant – Fire Prevention & Safety program NFPA has built a system to support local, evidence-based, decision making on operational performance, community risk reduction, firefighter safety, health, and wellness, and other fire service activities. The project is developing the groundwork for a flexible and scalable system to collect data from fire departments.
We have built a prototype infrastructure to take in, process, store, and share data from the records management systems that local fire departments choose to use. We are continuing to expand the capabilities of this system, especially in terms of collecting and standardizing community risk reduction data from local fire departments and other affiliated organizations.
This project is the culmination of considerable input and insights from a diverse group of representatives from the major stakeholder organizations, subject matter experts, and local users from across the country. The project had monthly conference calls with both the Executive Advisory Board and Technical Working Group and a series of workshops with a mix of people from agencies and organizations of all size and from across the country to give a deeper understanding of the true nature of the fire data problem.
© 2018 NFPA, For additional information, please visit www.nfpa.org
For reports about previous meetings and other archival documents please visit our project archive.
The National Fire Data System project has been developed and managed by the NFPA – Research, Data & Analytics division. For more information about recent activities subscribe to our Research + Analysis newsletters.
For more than 120 years, NFPA has been the leader in using information and knowledge to protect communities. Data analysis is the foundation of modern, evidence-based decisions to enhance operations, risk reduction and safety.
© 2019 NFPA
The information on this website is provided by NFPA on an “as is” and “as available” basis. NFPA makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, reliability or otherwise of the information. To the fullest extent permissible by law, NFPA disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Please read NFPA's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.