NFIRs Reporting Requirement

[travmcgee19]

I've been successful in obtaining a few grants over the years. As such, part of our obligation is to do NFIRs reporting for one year.

Being located in Pa, we were always told to extract the incidents and send to our county EOC Office, who would then submit to the state's PenFirs program. That info would then get to NFIRs.

We've been diligent in getting our incidents into the software and thought we were meeting our obligation. However, we received a letter from FEMA in December indicating they have never received any reports. In reviewing the state's summary report, we have a big fat zero there as well for reports received. Appears our local EOC does nothing w the reports we provided them.

I'm now working w the state directly to provide them the needed reports. But I have a few questions for the experts. First, for our 2010 app, I've received a budget reduction, 1199 and 10 questions. Should I expect this potential award to be held up until FEMA receives our previous reports? I'm expecting yes, but wanted to make sure.
Also - besides potentially not getting any future awards, are there penalties applied by FEMA for meeting our obligations?

[islandfire03]

I would make a call to your regional AFG rep & explain what has happened with your reports getting lost at the EOC level and that you are working on getting that straightened out with the state.
They may hold up further awards until you have the proper info filed with them , but at least if you make them aware of the effort to resolve the issue, they will know you are not blowing them off.
You should also e-mail a letter to the person handling your grant with a copy to the regional rep so they are also aware of the issue. Create a paper trail so to speak.

Good luck.

[jam24u]

I make my reports and make sure our membership keep NIMS compliant, but I have to say again, I feel NIMS and NFIRS is making things harder than they need to be.

[ktb9780]

I make my reports and make sure our membership keep NIMS compliant, but I have to say again, I feel NIMS and NFIRS is making things harder than they need to be.

Jim its NOT going to go away! No matter how many times you say it guy! LOL!

[peak85]

It is nice to see that they are looking into the grantees responsibilities with NFIRS, but I am a firm believer that a lot get thru the cracks. I would love to help DHS with some audits.

[kkresge]

NFIRs Reporting Requirement

I'm glad you posted your finding, it sparked my interest and I just checked the NFIRS 2010 report and my company also has a big fat 0 for each month, in fact all of the county departments have zero's. So I went back further and checked 2009 and to my surprise same thing. We also send reports to our local EOC for submission to PenFirs and NFIRS.

To make things worse we had a computer meltdown and lost all the data we entered for the past two years.

Suggestion to all PA Departments that do not send reports directly to Penfirs, check the state web site to make sure your incidents are being reported correctly.

http://www.osfc.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/pennfirs/9935

[peak85]

I submit all of our reports thru the data collection point at the County 911 Center also. I just checked the 2010 PennFIRS Report and we are short about 150 incidents. In 2009 we were short around 175. We are now finding out that a lot of other departments are coming up short on the reports submitted. Working on solving that issue.
Thanks for the discussion

[pasobuff]

Very interesting.....

In a related topic - does anyone have info on the ~accuracy~ of the NIFRS? I just had to review about 100 reports looking for a specific type of incident, and found discrepancies as to how incidents were coded - system malfunctions which were actually a fire (electrical in nature).....false alarms reported when there actually was burnt food/smoke.....these are incidents that I have first hand knowledge of....I'm sure there are many more!

[rands1]

I wonder with all the NFIRS problems they're having in PA, if thats the reason that the awards for that state seem to be down this year?

[JAM1096]

Very interesting.....

In a related topic - does anyone have info on the ~accuracy~ of the NIFRS? I just had to review about 100 reports looking for a specific type of incident, and found discrepancies as to how incidents were coded - system malfunctions which were actually a fire (electrical in nature).....false alarms reported when there actually was burnt food/smoke.....these are incidents that I have first hand knowledge of....I'm sure there are many more!

I am not sure how NFIRS are handled in your department, but errors like that are most likely an error during the entry. Who ever is doing the report decides what code is used. At least at my department, the system does not decide what the call is coded as, it is the officer that is entering the report. I have heard of people entering a false alarm instead of an electrical problem, because it is an easier report to complete, ie less fields to fill out. Make sure that everyone who enters the reports understand the importance of accurate information.

[jam24u]

Jim its NOT going to go away! No matter how many times you say it guy! LOL!

bwah ha ha ha!

Rats

[pasobuff]

I am not sure how NFIRS are handled in your department, but errors like that are most likely an error during the entry. Who ever is doing the report decides what code is used. At least at my department, the system does not decide what the call is coded as, it is the officer that is entering the report. I have heard of people entering a false alarm instead of an electrical problem, because it is an easier report to complete, ie less fields to fill out. Make sure that everyone who enters the reports understand the importance of accurate information.

It actually isn't my department - but a department I deal with almost daily...so I don't have any control over entries.....

I wonder what the numbers would look like if all calls were actually coded properly.....or at least consistently....

[islandfire03]

I wonder with all the NFIRS problems they're having in PA, if thats the reason that the awards for that state seem to be down this year?

They are down this year as if everyone due to the lower amount of funding available.
Still 16.56 million to 155 departments isn't shabby.

As of this week there in 3rd place for total amounts granted instead of being way ahead of everyone else as has been seen in past years.