In a live webinar hosted by UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) this week, officials shared the progress of the rollout of the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS) that began in November 2024.
NERIS is replacing the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), which is due to sunset at the end of 2025.
Tom Jenkins, NERIS senior advisor and research program manager for FSRI, was joined by Craig Weinschenk, Ph.D., FSRI’s research director and NERIS principal investigator, to discuss the onboarding process and how departments are utilizing the new data management program in its first few months.
During the webinar, several NERIS team members fielded a stream of questions from viewers in the comments, and following the presentation, panelists answered video questions from firefighters from across the country.
MORE | Goodbye NFIRS, hello NERIS: FAQs about the new data platform
Memorable quotes
- “NERIS is more than just simply a replacement for what we’ve been doing. It’s a system that’s designed fundamentally to be different, to be enhanced, and to expand as the needs of our business grow.” — Tom Jenkins
- “We want to make data-informed leadership the gold standard of the fire service.” — Tom Jenkins
Top 3 takeaways
As NERIS continues to onboard departments throughout the year, firefighters should keep these takeaways top of mind.
1. NERIS was “not built for the fire service, but with the fire service”
The new system is built for expansion, Jenkins said.
“We know that the system is better already than what we’re used to, but we don’t necessarily know what the needs of tomorrow will bring,” he said. “So, the architecture of the system is designed to be expandable as need it to.”
To test that capability, several fire departments were selected as beta testers to onboard to NERIS in 2024, with six departments logging on for the first time in March and an additional 56 added in August before the official launch of the program in November, when 111 more fire departments made the switch.
2. For data incident reporting, 2025 is a hybrid year
The NFIRS is set to sunset on Jan. 1, 2026. Fire departments are eligible to switch to the new NERIS system at any point they’re ready this year, Jenkins said. However, once the switch is made to NERIS, no data should be uploaded to NFIRS.
“Never at any point in time do we want departments doing dual reporting,” Jenkins said. “We want departments making the transition coming from the old to the new, whenever it’s right for them in a format and in a way that makes sense locally.”
3. NERIS is designed to provide data feedback at the local level
In video submission, a company officer from the Kansas City (Kansas) Fire Department asked how the new system will benefit his day-to-day work.
“I think if you go to most fire departments, I think your average firefighter, if you ask them, ‘Who’s that data for that you’re inputting?’ they would say, ‘Somebody else other than me,’” Jenkins said.
That’s not the case with NERIS, he said.
“In every way possible, we have considered the perspective of the women and men out there on the line doing the work,” he added. “These dashboards and the insights provided by our system, they’re not designed just for fire chiefs and data analysts … they’re designd to make sure that company officers and firefighters understand what’s going in their communities, what’s going on with their responses, so they can do two things: take care of those citizens and take care of themselves.”
Watch the full webinar below.
