Free tool · no account

NERIS fire cause Inside and out

13 causes for structure fires and 14 for outside fires. The incident type decides which list the cause comes from.

  • 13Structure fire causes
  • 14Outside fire causes

Which list

The incident type picks it

Fire moduleCause field

Type Structure Firestructure_fire_cause
Type Outside Fireoutside_fire_cause
  • One cause per fire, from the list that matches its incident type. Each is the cause or the likely cause.
  • Unable to be Determined is a real value in both lists. Use it rather than guess.
  • 4 values appear in both lists with the same code. They still go in the field for that fire's type.
  • Searching the wildland word works too: arson finds INCENDIARY.

All 27 codesTry

Structure fires

13 codes

For an incident typed …||STRUCTURE_FIRE||… The cause, or likely cause, of the fire.

  • Operating Equipment
    OPERATING_EQUIPMENT
  • Electrical
    ELECTRICAL
  • Battery / Power Storage
    BATTERY_POWER_STORAGE
  • Heat from Another Object
    HEAT_FROM_ANOTHER_OBJECT
  • Explosives / Fireworks
    EXPLOSIVES_FIREWORKS
  • Smoking Materials / Illicit Drugs
    SMOKING_MATERIALS_ILLICIT_DRUGS
  • Open Flame
    OPEN_FLAME
  • Cooking
    COOKING
  • Chemical
    CHEMICAL
  • Act of Nature
    ACT_OF_NATURE
  • Incendiary
    INCENDIARY
  • Other Heat Source
    OTHER_HEAT_SOURCE
  • Unable to be Determined
    UNABLE_TO_BE_DETERMINED

Outside fires

14 codes

For an incident typed …||OUTSIDE_FIRE||… The NWCG tag is the wildland cause NERIS lines each value up with.

  • NaturalNWCG Natural
    NATURAL
  • Equipment and Vehicle UseNWCG Equipment and vehicle use
    EQUIPMENT_VEHICLE_USE
  • Smoking Materials / Illicit DrugsNWCG Smoking
    SMOKING_MATERIALS_ILLICIT_DRUGS
  • Recreation and Ceremony (includes campfire)NWCG Recreation and ceremony (includes campfire)
    RECREATION_CEREMONY
  • Debris / Open BurningNWCG Debris and open burning
    DEBRIS_OPEN_BURNING
  • Railroad Operations / MaintenanceNWCG Railroad Operations and Maintenance
    RAILROAD_OPS_MAINTENANCE
  • Firearms / Explosives UseNWCG Firearms and explosive use
    FIREARMS_EXPLOSIVES
  • FireworksNWCG Fireworks
    FIREWORKS
  • Power Generation / Transmission / DistributionNWCG Power generation/transmission/distribution
    POWER_GEN_TRANS_DIST
  • StructureNWCG Structure
    STRUCTURE
  • IncendiaryNWCG Arson
    INCENDIARY
  • Battery / Power Storage
    BATTERY_POWER_STORAGE
  • Spread from Controlled Burn
    SPREAD_FROM_CONTROLLED_BURN
  • Unable to be DeterminedNWCG Undetermined (Human or Natural)
    UNABLE_TO_BE_DETERMINED

Free tools · no account

More NERIS code lists

Generated from the value lists and fire module NERIS publishes in its core data schema (neris-framework, version 60c2941). If this page and NERIS ever disagree, NERIS is right and we want to know. The official reference is the NERIS data dictionary.

For firefighters

Or just say it

Talk through the call. FireMic fills in the NERIS report for you to check.

Try it freeHow it works