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VFIRS Information
Virginia Fire incident Reporting System (VFIRS)
The Virginia Department of Fire Programs (VDFP) manages the reporting of incidents to the Virginia Fire Incident Reporting System (VFIRS). VFIRS is the statewide system for tracking all emergency responses with fire departments in Virginia. By reporting their incidents to VFIRS, fire departments document the details of their incidents for legal purposes and also document the overall activities with their fire department. By reporting their incidents, fire departments get credit for everything that they do in responding to incidents in their area. VFIRS also helps to show the value of a fire department’s public service to their community.
VFIRS is an all-type incident reporting system. Fire departments should be reporting all their emergency responses to VFIRS. All types of calls such as fires, EMS, hazmat, etc. should be reported to reflect all incidents being handled.
Participation in VFIRS is essential, since important decisions, such as decisions with grant funding, are made at the fire department, local, state and federal levels using the incident data reported to the system. By analyzing the incident data, information on the frequency of call types, the causes of fires, the amount of loss from fires can easily be identified to help develop appropriate fire prevention plans, to essentially help “Fight Fires with Facts”.
VFIRS Reporting Deadlines
Timeliness of reporting is critical to ensure the availability of current incident data. Fire departments should be consistently reporting incidents on a monthly basis.
- All incidents shall be reported (submitted) no later than the 15th of the calendar month for incidents that occurred in the previous month.
January incidents are due on February 15th each year. February incidents are due on March 15th. For incidents that remain open, any necessary update shall be reported no later than the 15th of the following month after it finally closed.
Example: A structure fire on March 27th is then/initially deemed to be of suspicious origin. That incident shall initially be reported into the system no later than April 15th. The investigation is not concluded until May 20th and then ‘closed’. If the original report is materially altered by the findings of that investigation - requiring an “update” to the existing record, that ‘change’ shall be reported no later than June 15th.
2010 Incident Reporting Schedule
| Month | Due Date |
|---|---|
| January | 2/15/2010 |
| February | 3/15/2010 |
| March | 4/15/2010 |
| April | 5/15/2010 |
| May | 6/15/2010 |
| June | 7/15/2010 |
| July | 8/15/2010 |
| August | 9/15/2010 |
| September | 10/15/2010 |
| October | 11/15/2010 |
| November | 12/15/2010 |
| December | 1/15/2011 |
NFIRS Reference Materials
Below are reference materials to aid your fire department with reporting your incidents to VFIRS.
NFIRS Guides/Manuals
- NFIRS Complete Reference Guide (January 2008)
- NFIRS Version 5.0 Forms
- NFIRS Incident Field Notes
- NFIRS Coding Questions (April 2009)
NFIRS Federal Client Tool Users Guides
- NFIRS Configuration Tool Users Guide (January 2009)
- NFIRS Data Entry / Validation Tool Users Guide (January 2009)
- NFIRS System Administration Tool Users Guide (January 2009)
NFIRS Web-Based Reports
- Summary Output Reports Tool Users Guide (April 2004)
Dollar Loss Estimation
- Building Valuation Data (February 2010)
VFIRS Newsletters
- Volume 1, Issue 1 (September 2008)
- Volume 2, Issue 1 (March 2009)
- Volume 2, Issue 2 (June 2009)
- Volume 2, Issue 3 (October 2009)
