FEMA plans new fire tracking system armed with machine learning and biometrics
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Another challenge is that only fire departments can access the NFIRS, blocking out other safety researchers from crucial data, said Michael Brooks, chief counsel for the Center for Auto Safety.
By Rebecca Heilweil
June 14, 2023
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has good reason to track fires across the country. Fires kill thousands of people and damage hundreds of thousands of homes across the US each year. Amid the battle against climate change, collecting data about these catastrophic disasters is more important than ever.
But there’s a problem. The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) — the government program used to track fires throughout the United States— is outdated. The tool, which originally relied on paper-based reports, was created by FEMA in the 1970s. The last time a new form of data was incorporated into the system was in 1995 when the Fire Administration started tracking Emergency Medical Services, or EMS, incidents. The system had its last technology update back in 2002.