Turning Data into Dollars!

Most of what we know about the fire problem we learn from the fire service. NFPA recently published Fire Loss in the United States during 2009 (available at www.nfpa.org/fireloss). If you or your department completed NFPA’s annual fire department experience survey, you contributed to this report. We get the details about what happens at fires from the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Incident Reporting System. Again, the original source is the fire department. We are grateful to all who take the time to complete our surveys and the NFIRS reports. Most of NFPA’s statistical reports are available to the fire service at no charge. NFPA members can download them from www.nfpa.org/osds. You can also e-mail osds@nfpa.org to request a specific report. These reports and this information is utilized to inform United States Congress and United States Senate and State level policy makers as they consider approving programs that provide much needed grants to the American fire service. The Assistant to Fire Fighters Grant, the Safer Grants, and the Fire Prevention Grants are examples of how this data is turned into dollars. For more information about these grants, go to www.firegrantsupport.com. Stacey Van Zandt