There is a serious lack of accurate data about the roughly 30,000 fire departments in the USA.
What information that we have is decades out of date, inaccurate, and certainly incomplete. Even the count of fire departments is only an estimate.
As well as capturing the real-time incident information, NERIS is working to improve fire service information. NERIS is effectively starting out as one big nationwide fire department survey.
When you log in to your fire department on NERIS you’ll be asked to review and/or create the information for your fire department. NERIS captures how many of you there are in your department, what resources your department has, and what systems you work with.
NOTE: NERIS uses the term entity to refer to a Fire Department, Fire RMS or other participant in NERIS.
NERIS: Gathering National Fire Department Information, Department by Department …
First, your fire department staffing. NERIS is looking for Fire and EMS, but also inspects career, volunteer and also civilian support.
Active volunteer civilians might be volunteer administrators and/or auxiliary (e.g food committee), or others depending upon your department’s creativity. Your social media team? Your truck maintenance team?
(NERIS questions for staffing)
Next, review your Fire and EMS and Investigative services, along with any shifts (if any.) Leaving aspects, including shifts, blank is acceptable.
(NERIS questions on services and shifts)
Many volunteer fire departments have (thankfully) longer gaps between calls, perhaps even up to weeks. These department do not attempt to staff shifts, other than maybe on holidays (when availability is low.) Leaving “shift” empty is correct in this case.
Each fire department provides station details and station apparatus details.
A “station” is where apparatus is housed, so even a “boathouse” would qualify as a “station” for the department rescue/fire boat. Command vehicles can be marked as housed at the primary station, even if the Chief or other officer keeps it at home.
(NERIS questions on units / apparatus)
(NERIS questions on unit / apparatus)
NERIS is looking for minimum numbers and NOT the number of seats in apparatus. Meaning, you might be able to get 5 responders in a truck, but what is your guideline for minimum staffing for the apparatus to roll?
For many volunteer departments that number is one (a single responder) because getting resources to scene is the primary initial objective. Other responders might arrive via POV, or in other apparatus, and often the responders operate as one team, not separate apparatus/unit crews.
(Note: For safety, it is preferable that responders not ‘go solo’ (and that is mandated for safety on some apparatus, such as a boat), however the true minimum response for most volunteer fire apparatus, for travel on roads, is one.)
For other departments, knowing the number of staff assigned to a station and the minimum responders to crew a unit or apparatus, allows insights into what resources can be coordinated within a region.
Your PSAP - public safety access point - is both the (public facing) 911 call center, and the (fire department facing) dispatch center that tones us out to runs. ( Many of the PSAPs are listed in the PSAP registry. )
Many of these questions are technical questions, perhaps best directed to your local dispatch center director.
(NERIS questions for Dispatch / Accreditation and ISO)
In firefighting, Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) is a system that uses GPS and telecommunication to track and monitor the real-time location of vehicles, enhancing situational awareness and response capabilities.
Much as ISO ratings are 1 to 10, there are many fire districts that have “split” ratings (e.g. fire hydrants in some areas, none in others.) Today, NERIS does NOT support splits, so enter your generate rating. Meaning, for a “5/X” rating enter “5”.
See when your state and/or territory is scheduled to migrate to NERIS:
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