NFIRS Software

[Landon8503]

I am new to this forum and not sure how to search. I am sure this has been discussed previously. I am wanting to know what software volunteer departments are mostly using to be NFIRS compliant and Compliant at the state level with EMS reporting. The paid dept I work at uses FIREHOUSE but I'm thinking the price is a little to high for the department I volunteer at. We are looking for a software that does it all. Including: NFIRS reporting, EMS reporting, Truck Maintenance, Training, Pump test, Ladder test, Hose test, etc. Please fill me in on what you are using or direct me to a previous topic discussing this. Thanks

[GTRider245]

We also use Firehouse at my career department, but with the number of users we have, it makes sense to do so. It wasn't finincially smart for my volunteer department. We went with Fire Programs and so far I like the system they provide. Easy enough to use and the price was right. Every dealing I have had with thier customer support has been great as well. I would recommend them for a small department with not many users on the system.

[Catch22]

We use Firehouse at both my career and vollie departments. On the vollie side, we started looking at Fire Programs and probably would have gone that route had our financial situation changed. We had a grant with excess funds in beyond the $5000 we could use for equipment. That amount had to be used for Fire Prevention and Safety projects. However, "risk management software" falls under that category, so we were able to bump up to Firehouse.

I think Fire Programs would do a fine job for a smaller department. I've never used it beyond the demo, but I've never heard anything bad from guys who do use it. It's definitely worth a look if you can't afford Firehouse. Or, look at using some grant funds or even putting in for an FP&S grant to buy the software and a computer to run it on. I've heard of departments having some success with that.

[jam24u]

Actually, when it comes to NFIRS and NIMS and, well I feel I better save it for later.

Congrats on finding a program to make the process easier

[LaFireEducator]

Combo department uses Fire Programs.

Does everything you listed and probably rings in at the same dollar figure as Firehouse.

Volunteer department uses reporting software provided by the State Fire Marshal's Office.

[voyager9]

Combo department uses Firehouse. We had been maintaining our own copy. County received a grant to provide access for all departments in the county.

Not a huge fan.. has some usability issues, especially in a multi-user environment. I can't tell you how many times I've had my narrative quashed because the system can't handle multiple users editing the field at the same time.

[BoxAlarm187]

At work, we're using a highly-customized edition of RedAlertNMX (made by Alpine Software) for our NFIRS reporting. Ours is integrated into the county's CAD system, which auto-populates as many fields as possible. We also have a number of department-specific fields in it. Personally, I like the software, the speed, ease of use, and how straightforward it is. As for the data management and maintenance side of things, I can't tell you much about that, as the IT folks handle that. As an end user, I'd buy it again....if I had the money to do so.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, we were also doing all of our EMS reporting through the RedNMX system also, but we've recently started doing all patient care reporting through our MDC's using software from Image Trend. This is a very easy-to-use web-based system that integrates our CAD, the MDC's, and the state's Office of EMS into one system, so as we're departing the ER, the report is completely done, uploaded to the state's data collection point, and off of our computer. Their software has been VERY well received, and you know how grumpy firefighters can be when it comes to change.

At the VFD, we're using FirePrograms, and frankly, we're very dissatisfied with with it. We find it very tedious to create reports (not incident reports, but reports such personnel response data, response times, etc) and the program itself is cumbersome. We understand that other departments have good luck with the program, but it's just not working out for us.

We've recently talked to the folks from Image Trend about migrating to their web-based reporting software for Fire and EMS reporting, based on the luck that we're having with it in my career department. We enjoyed a long conference call and demo with them last week, and have no doubt that as soon as we can find the funds, we're going to go to their system for our reporting. It was nice to know that they're also half the price some of the other commercially available systems too!

[tree68]

We have Fire Programs, but I'm not doing our reports on it yet - the state has a website for that purpose, and that's free.

[LVFD301]

I can't wait until someone with a lot more smarts than me gets a fire house google app suite going....

[Plainsvol]

Check with your state division of fire-software is free, we use NFIRSonline.com for us with 275 calls it costs us about $300 per year and interfaces with are state system

[GTRider245]

Combo department uses Fire Programs.

Does everything you listed and probably rings in at the same dollar figure as Firehouse.

Volunteer department uses reporting software provided by the State Fire Marshal's Office.

Not even close...

[markhorwich]

If you are looking for a program that does it all, is easy to use, and is affordable, try Fire Station. It tracks everything in your department, Calls (NFIRS 5.0 reporting!), Hydrants, Hoses, SCBAs, Ladders, Training, Inventory, Apparatus Checks, Expiration Dates.

Check out the demo at www.firestationsoftware.com

[BrianB35]

We use firehouse for our department but I feel it is an overkill. tech support is very good, but we keep having issues running on Windows 7.

[tree68]

At work, we're using a highly-customized edition of RedAlertNMX (made by Alpine Software) for our NFIRS reporting. Ours is integrated into the county's CAD system, which auto-populates as many fields as possible. We also have a number of department-specific fields in it. Personally, I like the software, the speed, ease of use, and how straightforward it is. As for the data management and maintenance side of things, I can't tell you much about that, as the IT folks handle that. As an end user, I'd buy it again....if I had the money to do so.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, we were also doing all of our EMS reporting through the RedNMX system also, but we've recently started doing all patient care reporting through our MDC's using software from Image Trend. This is a very easy-to-use web-based system that integrates our CAD, the MDC's, and the state's Office of EMS into one system, so as we're departing the ER, the report is completely done, uploaded to the state's data collection point, and off of our computer. Their software has been VERY well received, and you know how grumpy firefighters can be when it comes to change.

At the VFD, we're using FirePrograms, and frankly, we're very dissatisfied with with it. We find it very tedious to create reports (not incident reports, but reports such personnel response data, response times, etc) and the program itself is cumbersome. We understand that other departments have good luck with the program, but it's just not working out for us.

We've recently talked to the folks from Image Trend about migrating to their web-based reporting software for Fire and EMS reporting, based on the luck that we're having with it in my career department. We enjoyed a long conference call and demo with them last week, and have no doubt that as soon as we can find the funds, we're going to go to their system for our reporting. It was nice to know that they're also half the price some of the other commercially available systems too!

We changed over to RedNMX. One of these days it might work right, but we gave up a lot of features on the paging side that were included in Iamresponding (and what we do have came in as extra-cost add-ons) and the inventory move didn't go well at all. For a system that should be mature by now, it seems like we're spending a lot of time making what should be established features work. From where I sit (and I do most of that stuff for my department) RedNMX isn't worth the cost or the trouble of changing over.