National Fire Incident Reporting System, U.S. Fire Administration

Project Title:  View help for Project Title National Fire Incident Reporting System, U.S. Fire Administration

Summary:  View help for Summary The annual National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release files are provided by the U.S. Fire Administration’s (USFA) National Fire Data Center (NFDC). The NFIRS is a reporting standard that fire departments use to uniformly report on the full range of their activities, from fire to emergency medical services (EMS) to equipment involved in the response.NFIRS is the nation’s largest, national, annual database of fire incident information. NFIRS is a voluntary tool with two objectives: to help State and local governments develop fire reporting and analysis capability for their own use and to obtain data that can be used to more accurately assess and subsequently combat the fire problem at a national level.

These datasets are for researchers and fire data analysts.

Experience with fire data analysis and NFIRS data is recommended to properly use the NFIRS Public Data Release (PDR) datasets. Using raw NFIRS data as a count of fires and associated deaths, injuries and dollar loss is NOT a proper use of these datasets.FEMA's terms and conditions and citation requirements for datasets (API usage or file downloads) can be found on the OpenFEMA Terms and Conditions page: https://www.fema.gov/about/openfema/terms-conditions.

For answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the OpenFEMA program, API, and publicly available datasets, please visit: https://www.fema.gov/about/openfema/faq.

If you have media inquiries about this dataset, please email the FEMA Press Office at [email protected] or call (202) 646-3272. For inquiries about FEMA's data and Open Government program, please email the OpenFEMA team at [email protected].

Please note that upon clicking any of the available downloadable NFIRS Public Data Release data sets hyperlinks, an automatic download of that year's data will commence. Download times will vary depending on the size of the file and your connection. Some of the compressed zip file sizes vary from 132 MB and can range up to 822MB. If you prefer to order the NFIRS public release data on CD or DVD, please visit the USFA’s Download fire data and data analysis tools web page. 

Below are the data years that are currently available:
CD 1980-1998 - Fire Incidents (NFIRS version 4.1)
CD 1999-2003 - All Incidents
CD 2004-2019 - Fire and Hazardous Materials Incidents
DVD 2014-2019 - All Incidents

Original Distribution URL:  View help for Original Distribution URL https://www.fema.gov/about/openfema/data-sets/fema-usfa-nfirs-annual-data

Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2006 – 2023

Universe:  View help for Universe

NFIRS public data release

Each year the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) compiles publicly-released National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) incidents, collected by states during the previous calendar year, into a public data release (PDR) that is available free of charge.NFIRS PDR files from 1980 to 2023 are available for download on OpenFEMA or upon request on CD or DVD from the National Fire Data Center. Data available includes:

• 1980-1998 – Fire incidents (NFIRS version 4.1)
• 1999-2003 – All incidents
• 2004-2023 – Fire and hazardous materials incidents
• 2014-2023 – All incidents
  

About the PDR

• The PDR is a relational database of 20 tables tied together by a 2-, 5- or 6-variable key. Tables are zipped and in text CSV format for data after 2012 and dBASE format for prior years.
• Reference documentation, including “NFIRS 5.0 Fire Data Analysis Guidelines and Issues” and “NFIRS Complete Reference Guide,” is included.
• Spreadsheet software from productivity suites is generally not suitable for working with or analyzing the raw data.
• A database management system and expertise in SQL and/or other database programming language is necessary.
• This database is for researchers and fire data analysts. You should have considerable experience with fire data analysis and NFIRS data to properly use the PDR. Using raw NFIRS data as a count of fires and associated deaths, injuries and dollar loss is NOT a proper use of the PDR.

NFIRS Data Disclaimer: The data presented in the PDR reflect only a snapshot in time. The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) is not a repository of all incidents that occur in the United States. The NFIRS is a voluntary system, and it includes only those incidents reported to the system by fire departments that participate. Data available may vary, depending on the frequency of incident reporting and by the frequency of data imported to the NFIRS by the fire department or state. Not all states participate in the NFIRS each year, and all fire departments that report to the NFIRS within a state do not necessarily report all of their incidents. In addition, some fire departments that report fire incidents do not report all information within a report, including associated casualties or estimated dollar losses. States and/or fire departments that report in one particular year may not report to the NFIRS the following year. Therefore, the NFIRS is not a census of all incidents or casualties. As a result, reported NFIRS data should not be used to represent total counts of incidents and associated losses (i.e., casualties and dollar loss) at the national or state levels. Learn more about NFIRS

Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes

Data analysis tools

Guidelines to use when analyzing NFIRS 5.0 data

National Fire Incident Reporting System Version 5.0 Fire Data Analysis Guidelines and Issues PDF discusses analytic considerations and methods of analyzing fire incident data using NFIRS Version 5.0. The topics include the NFIRS 5.0 data structure, general quality assurance issues, and definitions and parameters of common fire analyses (e.g., residential structure fires or fires by a specific cause).

Techniques for turning data into useful information

Collecting data is a legal requirement for documenting incidents; however, incident reports provide a more beneficial service to fire departments by providing insight into the nature of fires and injuries.The Fire Data Analysis Handbook PDF describes statistical techniques to turn data into information that fire departments can use to gain insights into fire problems, improve resource allocation for preventing fires and identify training needs. The techniques range from simple to complex. Described are how to:

• Develop charts to provide more effective presentations about fire problems.
• Compute simple statistics, such as means, medians and modes.
• Create tables and calculate different percentages from tables.
• Perform correlation, regression, loglinear analysis and queueing theory.

These are all techniques which can tell fire departments more about the nature of fires and injuries.

Information for analyzing NFIRS 4.1 historical data

The files below contain instructional information useful in the analysis of NFIRS 4.1 historical data. The USFA stopped accepting NFIRS 4.1 data on Jan. 1, 2010.

• NFIRS 4.1 Codes and Descriptions
• NFIRS-1, Incident Report
• NFIRS-2, Civilian Casualty Report
• NFIRS-3, Fire Service Casualty Report
• NFIRS 4.1 File Layouts