Puerto Rico · NERIS
NERIS reporting in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico's NERIS directory lists six fire departments. Most of what this page can say about them comes from just two, because that's how many answered the type, station, and staffing fields at all.
Fire departments in Puerto Rico
- Departments in the directory
- 6
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.
The same denominator, three separate fields
Puerto Rico’s directory lists 6 fire departments. Look at how many answer each question and the same number keeps showing up: 2 report a department type, 2 report a station count, 2 report firefighter staffing. Whether that’s one pair of departments answering everything, or three different pairs each answering exactly one field, isn’t something the directory records — it holds the count, not the identity behind it. Either way, 4 of the 6 departments are effectively blank in this data, not because they don’t exist, but because nothing about them has been filled in here.
What the two that answered actually said
Of the two departments with a department type on record, one is CAREER and one is COMBINATION. No department in Puerto Rico is typed VOLUNTEER in this directory, though that’s a statement about a blank field for the other four, not a confirmed count of zero volunteer companies. The staffing numbers add another layer: the two departments that report headcounts carry 1,771 career firefighters against 50 volunteers, and the two that report a station count carry 85 stations between them. Population protected is the one field where even that pattern of two breaks down: none of the six departments reports a figure for it, so the directory says nothing about how many people any department here covers.
One report doesn’t wait on the other four
Whatever this directory does or doesn’t hold for a given department, NERIS asks for the same report once a unit actually responds: narrated, split into the relevant modules, and filed through the same federal API used everywhere else in the country. Finding out whether recording a call out loud and reading back the structured version works for a department here doesn’t require the other four departments to fill in their blanks first. It requires one department, recording one real incident.
Worth knowing about Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico's directory lists 6 fire departments — fewer than every state and territory in this snapshot except Guam's 1 and the District of Columbia's 5, making it the third-thinnest entry overall.
Source: snapshot: PR.department_count compared against department_count for every state/territory entry in state-department-snapshot.json
Only 2 of Puerto Rico's 6 departments report a department type at all: one CAREER and one COMBINATION. No department here is typed VOLUNTEER, though that reflects a blank field for the other four, not a confirmed count of zero volunteer companies.
Source: snapshot: PR.department_count, PR.by_department_type, PR.departments_with_type_data
The 2 departments that report firefighter staffing account for 1,771 career firefighters and 50 volunteers between them — a raw total from a pair of departments, not a statewide figure.
Source: snapshot: PR.firefighters_volunteer_sum, PR.firefighters_career_sum, PR.departments_with_staffing_data
85 stations are recorded in Puerto Rico's directory, reported by 2 departments — the same count of departments that answer the type field and the staffing field, though the directory doesn't say whether it's the same 2 each time.
Source: snapshot: PR.station_count_sum, PR.departments_with_station_data, PR.departments_with_type_data, PR.departments_with_staffing_data
None of Puerto Rico's 6 departments reports a population-protected figure — that field is blank across the entire directory, unlike department type, stations, and staffing, which at least 2 departments each answered.
Source: snapshot: PR.population_protected_sum, PR.departments_with_population_data
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
Departments here that apply for an Assistance to Firefighters Grant answer the same operational and call-activity questions every applicant does. This directory doesn't establish whether NERIS participation plays into how AFG applications are scored, so we're not going to guess at a federal program's rules just to make a sales point. The one thing worth saying without guessing: a year of call activity is faster to summarize from reports already on file than from runs somebody has to reconstruct from memory once the application is open.
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 Puerto Rico 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 Puerto Rico 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.