National Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System

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Since 2005, the National Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System has offered firefighters a secure, non-punitive way to share information about incidents that may have resulted in an injury, fatality or property damage. Any incident that puts a firefighter at risk should be reported - large or small.

According to C.J. Haberkorn, Program Trainer with the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System, these types of incidents include, but are not limited to, almost getting hit en-route to a call, a slip or fall at firehouse, or a roof collapse on a structure fire.

A firefighter can submit a report from a current or past incident. It does not matter how long ago something happened, as long as it is relevant. The report is completely confidential and there are no right or wrong answers.  It just needs to be accurate. The report then goes to a set of reviewers who "are all sworn, paid, professional firefighters with a minimum of fifteen years on the job," according to Haberkorn.

Grammar, spelling and punctuation are not critical.  If needed, the report will be corrected. Haberkorn claimed that reviewers completely de-identify the document so that there are no first names, department names, states, city streets, etc. If contact information is given, which is optional, reviewers will call to verify the report.

"Then it goes to a second reviewer, who is also a firefighter. They'll go through it to make sure it's completely scrubbed, cleaned," explained Haberkorn. Eventually, the report will be posted on the website. Turn-around time for this process is approximately four days from when the report is submitted. Reports can also be searched by keyword, general location and more. 'Reports of the Week' and 'Table Top Training Exercises' are also available.

The Near-Miss Reporting System is also tied to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation's Everyone Goes Home program and their 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives which work to reduce the number of preventable firefighter fatalities. "We have about 4,200 reports in the system and it just keeps going. We've already received 1,000 reports for the year and are hoping to hit 2,000," Haberkorn explained.

The Near Miss Reporting System is managed by the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and supported by the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).

For more information about the National Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting system or to search reports, please visit http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/.

Contributors to this story:
Barbara Brooks - Video Story
Ann Zevely - Camera/Editor
Renee Marquart - Text Story



Author:B. Brooks, A. Zevely, R. Marquart - FDNNTV.com