Why Structure Fires Are the Hardest to Report
Structure fires activate every section of the NERIS Fire Module. Officers must document what the building was, where the fire started, how far it had spread at arrival, what suppression systems were present and whether they worked, what caused the ignition, and what the department did about it.
This requires the reporting officer to have been present at arrival — or to have obtained accurate information from those who were. For combination and career departments where company officers do not always write their own reports, structure fire records are the most common source of MEI gaps.
Key Fields for Structure Fires
Area of Origin
Where the fire started within the structure — requires arrival knowledge
Fire Spread
How far it extended at arrival and at control — two data points
Ignition Cause
Cause category and contributing factor
Detector Performance
Presence, activation, and effectiveness of smoke and heat detectors
Sprinkler Performance
Presence and effectiveness of suppression systems
Structure Type
Construction type and number of stories
Property Use
NERIS property use classification code — not the same as NFIRS codes
Actions Taken
Primary and secondary actions for suppression, rescue, ventilation
Station Draft and Structure Fires
Structure fires are the primary coverage focus for Station Draft v0.1. Officers write a narrative describing what they found, what they did, and what the outcome was. Station Draft maps that narrative to all required Fire Module fields and flags each one with a confidence level.
High-confidence fields are ready for transfer to the RMS. Review flags indicate fields where the narrative implied something but verification is recommended. Missing flags indicate fields where the narrative did not contain enough information — prompting the officer to add that data before submitting.