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National Fire Incident Reporting System: Program Manager N0489

Delivery type

Multi-day/other

ACE recommendation

There is not an American Council on Education credit recommendation for this course.

This 5-day course provides information about the national, state and local database and the reporting system capabilities, data collection and analysis, and the available reporting features. Students will formulate questions and use data to get the answers they need. The course focuses on analysis of National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) data and development of decision packages. The course goal is to enable students to use NFIRS with evolving technologies to assist the fire service and information partners in making better data-driven decisions that address fire and life safety issues.

Extensive computer access is required. Lab assignment will apply to the student’s jurisdictional data and will be used to develop an “Action Plan.” Lab sessions include the SORT Tool, Federal Client Tool, administering user accounts and the Data Dictionary, importing data into Excel and creating Pivot tables, charting and graphing techniques, and mapping incidents and resources. Class activities build on basic knowledge of NFIRS coding and familiarity with Microsoft Excel.

The pre-course assignment includes a task to contact the NFIRS state program manager 4 weeks prior to the start of class to obtain permission for data access for use during the training.

Pre-course materials and course syllabus

: https://nfa.usfa.fema.gov/ax/pcm/pcm_r0491.pdf PDF 77 KB

This course is for a broad audience that may include a range of titles from administrative fire officers to firefighters, information technology personnel, systems operations and management, systems administration, systems analysts, and support staff. The class is designed for individuals who analyze jurisdictional data and provide or use comprehensive reports. This includes chief officers who need data for planning purposes and also those who are not familiar with data tools and data entry but require them to improve organizational operations, management or administration. Special consideration is available for groups of students from the same organization attending the same session. All applications must be submitted at the same time.

  1. Incident Command System (ICS)-100-level and ICS-200-level training. Preferred courses are Q0462 and Q0463, available through NFA Online. Chief’s signature attests that the applicant has completed this required training.
  2. Applicants must have attended one of the following or an equivalent: The National Fire Academy's (NFA's) 2-day "Introduction to NFIRS 5.0" (F/W/O0497) course; a state or regionally sponsored 2-day "Introduction to NFIRS 5.0" course; or the NFA's online "National Fire Incident Reporting System 5.0 Self-Study" (Q0494) course available through NFA Online.