NERIS fields, in plain language

The shape of it

A NERIS report is not one form. It is a core incident record plus modules, and which modules apply depends on what the call was. A gas leak brings the hazardous-situation module; a working fire brings the fire module; a cardiac arrest brings a medical module per patient.

Modules that are always part of the record, even when empty:

• Core incident: everything that is not dispatch.
• Dispatch: CAD data and the timestamps.
• Unit response: one entry per apparatus that went.
• Rescue / casualty, firefighter and non-firefighter: submitted even when nobody was hurt and nobody was rescued. "Nothing happened" is a value, not a blank.
• Risk reduction: whether smoke alarms and suppression systems were present and whether they operated.

Modules that appear only when they apply:

• Fire: for fire types.
• Medical: one per patient.
• HazSit: hazardous materials and hazardous situations.
• Emerging hazard: battery/EV, solar, CSST and similar.
• Exposure: damage to adjacent property.

And two the system fills in for you: weather and parcel data are augmented by NERIS from the location and time. You do not enter them.

Incident type

The one field everyone asks about. It is a hierarchy up to three levels deep, written as text rather than the numeric codes NFIRS used, and an incident can carry several types with one marked primary.

There are 128 of them. Search the full list.

Location, and what the building is used for

Two separate things. The civic location is the address. The location use is what the property is, and NERIS validates the two levels as one combined value, so only the exact pairs in the schema are accepted. The top level is:

• RESIDENTIAL: Residential
• COMMERCIAL: Commercial
• ASSEMBLY: Assembly
• EDUCATION: Education
• GOVERNMENT: Government
• INDUSTRIAL: Industrial
• HEALTH_CARE: Health Care
• STORAGE: Storage
• ROADWAY_ACCESS: Roadway/Access
• OUTDOOR: Outdoor
• OUTDOOR_INDUSTRIAL: Outdoor Industrial
• AGRICULTURE_STRUCT: Agricultural Structure
• UTILITY_MISC: Utility/Misc
• UNCLASSIFIED: Unclassified

Each of those has its own second level (single-family detached, mid-rise multi-family, and so on).

The timestamps

NERIS wants dispatch times in UTC, and it distinguishes moments that NFIRS treated more loosely:

Separately, the tactic timestamps module records the fireground milestones: command established, 360 complete, water on fire, knockdown, under control, suppression complete, primary search begin and complete, extrication complete.

Practical note: these are the fields people most often do not have to the minute. A time you did not record is not improved by guessing at it.

Narratives

NERIS splits the narrative in two, which is the change that surprises people most:

• incident_narrative_impediment: what got in the way. A blocked hydrant, a locked gate, a delayed second due.
• incident_narrative_outcome: what happened and how it ended.

Both are long-form text fields; you are not writing to a 255-character box.

Aid given and received

Direction is GIVEN or RECEIVED. Type is one of:

• SUPPORT_AID: Support Aid
• IN_LIEU_AID: In Lieu Aid
• ACTING_AS_AID: Acting as Aid

This matters more than it looks: on a multi-company call, each department files its own incident, and the aid fields are what makes them one event rather than several unrelated ones.

Special modifiers

Flags that sit on the incident regardless of type:

• ACTIVE_ASSAILANT: Active Assailant
• MCI: Mass Casualty Incident
• FEDERAL_DECLARED_DISASTER: Federal Declared Disaster
• STATE_DECLARED_DISASTER: State Declared Disaster
• COUNTY_LOCAL_DECLARED_DISASTER: County/Local Declared Disaster
• URBAN_CONFLAGRATION: Urban Conflagration
• VIOLENCE_AGAINST_RESPONDER: Violence Against Responder

The fire module, when it applies

• Conditions on arrival: nothing showing, smoke showing, smoke and fire showing, structure involved, spread beyond the structure, or out on arrival.
• Damage: none, minor, moderate, major.
• Floor and room of origin: the floor is an integer and negative values mean below grade.
• Cause: a different list for indoor and outdoor fires. "Unable to be determined" is a legitimate answer and is a value in both lists.
• Water supply and suppression appliances: hydrant under or over 500 feet, tank water, tender shuttle, drafting, and the hose and master-stream options.
• Investigation: whether one is needed and what type.

The medical module, when it applies

One per patient, and deliberately short:

• Patient care evaluation: evaluated with care provided, evaluated and care refused, evaluated and none required, refused evaluation entirely, support services only, or dead on arrival.
• Status after your care: improved, unchanged, worse.
• Disposition: how transport went, if it did.
• Patient care report ID: the link to your NEMSIS record, not a duplicate of it. NERIS is not asking you to re-enter the PCR.

Casualties and rescues

Full sub-modules with demographics rather than simple counts, and split into firefighter and non-firefighter. Casualty type is UNINJURED, INJURED_NONFATAL, or INJURED_FATAL. Rescue type distinguishes rescued by a firefighter, rescued by a RIT, rescued by a non-firefighter, assisted evacuation, self-evacuation, and no rescue needed.

Two things worth knowing about IDs

• Your department has a NERIS entity ID: ten characters, like FD24027240. It is assigned; you do not choose it.
• Each incident gets a NERIS incident ID that combines the department ID with an incident identifier. You also supply your own internal ID, so the record can be matched back to whatever your CAD or RMS calls it.

What "required" means here

The schema marks fields several ways: some are required by the database, some are part of the core dataset, and some are required only when something else is true (a fire module field is required when the incident is a fire). In practice you find out which is which when a submission is rejected, which is why our app validates before it sends and puts the rejection in plain language next to the field it belongs to.