2018 Urban Fire Forum (UFF) Fire Department Capability, Performance and System Resilience White Paper

Fire and Rescue Departments are “ ALL-Hazards ” Departments providing emergency medical response, fire suppression, technical rescue, hazardous materials response, response to active shooter/hostile events, fire inspections, public education, investigation, community training and more. Effectively managing a fire department requires an understanding of and an ability to demonstrate how changes to resources in any of these areas will affect the overall safety of the community. The necessity of data collection, analysis and reporting cannot be overstated. Data, and the information gleaned from it, show the need for prevention, public education, and emergency response services including the number of appropriately staffed and deployed apparatus necessary to mitigate the emergencies that occur. This white paper also discusses the historical use of fire department annual reports and their limitations, guidelines for a detailed community risk assessment addressing hazards and their associated risks, and how to gather data necessary to conduct a community risk assessment. Other sections discuss fire department performance and the associated metrics found in industry standards and in the NFORS data system, as well as several other important sections.

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