WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Fire Administration has issued two special reports examining fire department responses to all types of emergency situations.
The reports, part of the administration’s Topical Fire Report Series, cover the range of emergencies departments respond to such as fire, EMS calls, technical rescues, explosions, hazardous threats and conditions, natural disasters and false alarms.
“In today’s community and emergency environment, fire protection is only one of the many functions of a fire department,” said U.S. Fire Administrator Greg Cade. “As in the past, today’s firefighters are trained to handle all types of incidents, including EMS and will continue to prepare themselves for all types of emergencies, threats and vulnerabilities in the future.”
The two reports, the Fire Department Overall Run Profile and the Fire Department Fire Run Profile, were developed by the National Fire Data Center to highlight the full role fire departments play in a community. They cover fire department run activity as reflected in the 2004 National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) data.
The Fire Department Overall Run Profile looks at all types of fire department runs or calls including fire, whereas the focus of the Fire Department Fire Run Profile is strictly fire. According to the reports, 55 percent of department responses require EMS and rescue services. False alarms account for 12 percent of all fire department runs, followed closely by good intent calls at 10 percent. Only about 8 percent of all calls actually involve fire. Forty-two percent of all fire runs are to incidents involving structures, followed by outside fires at 35 percent.
Related Resources: Fire Department Overall Run Profile |