The State Fire Marshal’s Office began participating in the National Fire-Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) in 1986. This reporting system was gradually implemented in the state and by 1989 entirely replaced the previous report forms used by the agency. State law requires all fires in the state be reported to the State Fire Marshal. If you are not sure whether your department is reporting, you can review the 
Fire Department Reporting History. This shows departments who have reported or let the State Fire Marshal know they had no fires since 1983.
The US Fire Administration and the National Fire Information Council developed NFIRS to collect data in a uniform manner on fires and other incidents at the federal, state and local levels. Through NFIRS we collect much more valuable information on incidents that occur in the state than we did with the previous reporting systems. The collection of comprehensive, quality data improved again with the implementation of NFIRS 5.0 in January 1999.
In order to fully utilize the reporting tool and benefit from the data collected, it is important all fire departments report the fires in their district. Currently only about half the departments submit reports. However, these departments protect 80 percent of the state’s population.
Contact Deb Hostetler by email or call at (402) 471-9479 for more information about NEFIRS or if you have any questions completing an incident report.
Reporting
Effective January 1, 2004, we will only accept NFIRS 5.0 reports (paper or electronic)
For any incident occurring on or after January 1, 2004. If you use software to complete NFIRS 5.0, you must submit your data electronically (email or copy to a floppy disk or CD). Paper reports printed from software will not be accepted. We have prepared instructions on how to export your data and submit it to us for the three most common vendor’s software used by Nebraska’s fire departments. An email response will be sent acknowledging the receipt of a file submitted by email. The email will also indicate if there are any errors that need to be corrected. If you do not receive an email response after two weeks, please contact Deb to make sure she received your data.
Paper reports should be mailed to:
State Fire Marshal’s Office
Deborah Hostetler
246 South 14th Street
Lincoln, NE 68508-1804
Reports should be submitted at least quarterly but it is preferred they are sent in monthly. If the department does not make any runs during a month, a “No Activity” report should be submitted.
The forms and Complete Reference Guide (formerly referred to as the handbook) were revised in January 2013 and are available for download.
