TEXFIRS

Texas Fire Incident Reporting SystemState Fire Marshal’s Office

Uses and Reports

What is a TEXFIRS Incident Report

Written or electronic documentation Description of the circumstances Future reference TEXFIRS and NFIRS

Why collect it?

Provides a way to maintain a legal document of the fact that an incident occurred

Keeps management informed Provides a uniform manner of evaluating local, state and

national needs Documents all that you do

Uses of TEXFIRS/NFIRS

Mock Trial

Local Fire Department Use

Justification of budgets Resource allocation Staffing decisions Trends of problems in local areas Comparison with State averages Comparisons with similar communities

Local Use and Presentation

Educate your administration Promote support from community Incorporate in your funding applications

Use charts or graphs to display

Publish or distribute information

Identifying Trends

Multiple years comparison Incendiary activity

Juvenile and the Elderly fire involvement Firefighter safety

Users of NFIRS

Local Fire Departments State Governments Private Industry Private Citizen U.S. Congress Federal Government Agencies Media Insurance Companies Law Offices Product Manufacturers Fire Organizations

State Uses of NFIRS

Preparing Fire Marshal's annual report Focus Fire Prevention programs Recommend or support changes to legislation based on

incident trend analysis The state uses its NFIRS data to analyze fire activity throughout

the state and recommend or implement prevention efforts.

USFA uses of NFIRS

The USFA uses NFIRS for: Prioritizing the many fire issues in the US Identifying aspects of the fire problem that require continued

monitoring Quantifying the costs of fire (life and property) Preparing congressional testimony and justifying budget

requests Facilitating agency management reviews Providing means of measuring the impact of programs and

activities

Other Federal Agencies

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Committee (CPSC)

National Highway Safety Committee (NHTSA)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Center for Disease Control (CDC)

Armed Forces U.S. Commerce Department Center for Fire Research U.S. Congress

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

U.S. Department of Treasury Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco

and Firearms (ATF) Library of Congress U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of

Investigation (FBI) U.S. Department of

Transportation (USDOT)

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Analyzed the fire risk associated with portable space heaters, kerosene space heaters, wood stoves, metal chimneys, upholstered furniture, cigarettes, and sleepwear among other products

Child-resistant safety standard for cigarette lighters Estimated between 80 & 105 deaths annually among children

under the age of 5 would be prevented National Smoke Detector Project Research on potential product fire hazards and to identify the

need for product recalls or product repairs The fields “equipment involved in” and “form of heat of ignition”

The Center for Fire Research

NFIRS data is used to develop fire models and to conduct analysis of fire risk. Helped to define the U.S. Fire problem “America Burning Revisited”

Non-profit Fire-Related Organizations

IAFC, IAFF NFIRS data can be used to generalize about the types of fires

that present the greatest risk to firefighters and the type of injuries firefighter most often sustain

Investigate whether particular pieces of gear are associated with fire fighter injuries

NASFM Investigated the effect of California’s fabric flammability

standards

NFPA Often used as the basis for articles in the Fire Journal

Public Fire Educators

Justify funding of programs for dealing with community fire problems as they are identified.

NFIRS is the largest data set in the world!!

TEXFIRS Reporting

All incident reporting TEXFIRS/NFIRS

Monthly reporting Paper, vendor software, federal software

Don’t need federal software account to report Email file receipt confirmation

FD Reporting Status TEXFIRS Website

www.tdi.state.tx.us/fire

TEXFIRS Website

“Fires in Texas” annual report Fire Department FDID list Incident count by month Reporting Guidelines Software Training Self Study Course Handbooks/forms Building Valuation Census Tracts

Valid Incidents

Processing data files Error reports Vendor issues USFA Updates

Data Summary Report State Request

Need based Report USFA Request

Web Based Reporting Tool

Request Summary Reports

TEXFIRS/NFIRS Reports

www.tdi.state.tx.us/fire/fmtexfir.html

USFA Web-Based Reporting Tool

NFIRS 5.0 Web-based Summary Output Reports Tool enables users to obtain summaries and statistical calculations on the data saved to the National Database. Guest Account

www.nfirs.fema.gov/webtools/

Web-Based Tools

www.nfirs.fema.gov/webtools/

Summary Output Reporting Tool

Click on Summary Output Reports Tool

User Account Login

Enter: Your user accountEnter: TX for stateEnter: Your password

Or, use Guest account

Choosing a Report

Choose a Report

Summary by Incident Type Data QualityDetailed Selected Statistics Fires Under InvestigationFire Report By FDID Fire Service CasualtiesMonthly Incident Counts Civilian Casualties Incident Counts Tally

Incidents By Time Series Incident ListingMutual Aid Incidents FDID Incident Type SummaryData Inventory By FDID Unresolved Fire IncidentsFire Department Information Structure Fire CausesStructure Fires by Property Use Residential Str Fire

CausesMutual Aid Given Unmatched Depts

USFA Summary Reports

Completed Reports

Printing and Saving your Report

Printing or Saving PDF file

Summary By Incident Type Report

Incident frequency summarized by Incident Type The report includes % of the total frequency for each Incident

Type code category.

Summary information of Exposure incidents, Mutual Aid Given codes, casualties, and the total dollar loss for fire incidents.

Note: No Activity incidents (N status) are not included in any frequency count.

SAMPLE REPORT“SummarybyIncidentType”

Fire Report by FDID

The Fire Report By FDID generates summary information of fires, by Fire Department. Within each FDID, Fire Type is summarized at 3

levels: Building Fires, Vehicle Fires, and Other Fires.

Web-Based Reporting Tool Logout

Log Out

What We Need to Know

Input higher quality data The quality of information generated by NFIRS is only as good

as the data entered at the fire house level Correctly and thoroughly input data Include property value and loss estimates

Grants, training, NFA courses are depending on NFIRS data in the system

Be aware, millions of dollars are targeted at problems identified through NFIRS

Acknowledgement

There is a long way to go toward making even better use of NFIRS. But we have a system in place that works well.

Everyone associated with NFIRS at the local, state and national levels should feel proud of the important contribution they have made.

NFIRS will continue to guide fire protection in the U.S.

Time and memory are true artists; they remold reality nearer to the heart's

desire.

John Dewey

Document All That You Do

Texas Department of Insurance

State Fire Marshal’s Office

P.O. Box 149221, MC 108-FM

Austin, Texas 78714-9221

Phone: (512) 305-7950 FAX: (512) 305-7910

www.tdi.state.tx.us www.nfirs.fema.gov

TEXFIRS