North Carolina · NERIS
Filing NERIS reports in North Carolina
North Carolina's fire service is split across more departments than all but three other states in this directory. Most of them are small, volunteer or combination-staffed, and each one is responsible for its own NERIS reports.
Fire departments in North Carolina
- Departments in the directory
- 1,227
- Volunteer departments
- 59%
- Volunteer or combination
- 93%
- Stations
- 2,393
591 of 997 departments that report a department type
927 of 997 departments that report a department type
reported by 1,084 departments
Across the 1,007 North Carolina departments that report staffing, the directory holds 25,400 volunteer firefighters and 15,397 career firefighters; 62% of those counted are volunteers.
Source: the NERIS public department directory, as mirrored in our departments table on July 28, 2026. Percentages are stated against the number of departments that actually reported the field, which is always shown next to them. Departments that reported nothing are not counted as zero and no figure here is estimated.
Fourth-highest count in the directory
The NERIS public directory lists 1,227 fire departments in North Carolina. Sorted by the department_count field against every other state and territory in this snapshot, that’s the fourth-highest total there is, behind only Pennsylvania (2,172), Texas (1,883), and New York (1,790). What that ranking says isn’t about the size of the state; it’s about how the reporting workload is organized here: not concentrated in a handful of large departments, but spread across well over a thousand separate filers, each responsible for its own incidents.
Mostly volunteer, mostly small
Of the 997 departments that report a type, 591 are volunteer and 336 are combination: 93% run on some volunteer staffing, against 70 that are career only. Move to headcount and the split barely changes: across the 1,007 departments that report staffing, volunteers make up 62% of the people counted, close to the 59% share by department type rather than the wide swing some states show between the two figures. Put the two staffing sums over that same 1,007 and the average North Carolina department reporting staffing comes out to 40 firefighters — small enough that reporting rarely has a dedicated clerk sitting behind it.
Two stations per department, then a gap
Station counts are reported by 1,084 of the 1,227 departments, summing to 2,393. That is a little over two stations for every department that answered. Population protected doesn’t keep the same pace: only 189 departments have entered a figure at all, summing to 3,386,474, too thin a slice of the state to read as statewide coverage.
None of that has to be sorted out before you see what a filed report actually looks like. Run one call through FireMic the way you already found this page (no account needed) and read back what comes out before deciding whether it changes how your department files.
Worth knowing about North Carolina
North Carolina carries 1,227 fire departments in the NERIS public directory — the fourth-highest count of any state or territory in this snapshot, behind only Pennsylvania (2,172), Texas (1,883), and New York (1,790).
Source: snapshot: NC.department_count, compared to department_count for all 53 states/territories in by_state (sorted descending)
Of the 997 North Carolina departments that report a department type, 591 are volunteer and 336 are combination — 93% run on some volunteer staffing, against 70 that are career only.
Source: snapshot: NC.by_department_type, NC.departments_with_type_data
Across the 1,007 North Carolina departments that report staffing, the directory counts 25,400 volunteer firefighters and 15,397 career firefighters — an average of 40 firefighters per department.
Source: snapshot: NC.firefighters_volunteer_sum, NC.firefighters_career_sum, NC.departments_with_staffing_data
2,393 stations are reported across 1,084 of North Carolina's 1,227 departments — a little over two stations for every department that answered.
Source: snapshot: NC.station_count_sum, NC.departments_with_station_data, NC.department_count
Only 189 of North Carolina's 1,227 departments have entered a population-protected figure, summing to 3,386,474 — the thinnest-reported field in the state's data.
Source: snapshot: NC.population_protected_sum, NC.departments_with_population_data, NC.department_count
What changed
NERIS replaced NFIRS as the federal fire incident reporting standard onFebruary 1, 2026. It is a different shape of report, not a renamed one: modules instead of flat forms, a three-level text hierarchy instead of numeric incident codes, and an API instead of a file you upload.
What actually changed, in detail · NERIS onboarding (FSRI) · Department sign-up
About grant applications
Assistance to Firefighters Grant applications are filed by individual departments, not by the state, and North Carolina has more of them filing on their own than all but three other states in this directory. This page can't tell you how NERIS reporting factors into AFG eligibility or scoring — that determination sits with the grant program's own guidance, not with a reporting vendor. What we can say plainly: an application asking about your call history is faster to complete from reports already filed than from paper runsheets and a volunteer secretary's memory of the year.
We are a vendor, not a grant advisor. Do not take our word for what any grant program requires. Read the current notice of funding opportunity or ask your state's grant coordinator.
Try it on a real North Carolina call
Record one incident, read the report it produces, and decide from there. No account, no card, no call with anyone.
FireMic is a private company. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or recommended by any North Carolina state agency, USFA, FSRI, or FEMA. State fire officials do not endorse vendors, and nothing on this page should be read as suggesting otherwise.
Department figures: FireMic Supabase departments table (mirror of the NERIS public department directory, ArcGIS layer 0). Snapshot taken July 28, 2026.