U.S. Fire Administration

 The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) prioritizes "working for a fire-safe America." As fire-related natural disasters and incidents continue to occur, it's important to understand and learn about fire and emergency services in the United States. 

What is the U.S. Fire Administration? 

The U.S. Fire Administration is an entity of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA aims to help individuals before, during, and after disasters through emergency management, grants, and other forms of assistance. The U.S. Fire Administration's mission is to "support and strengthen fire and emergency medical services (EMS) and stakeholders to prepare for, prevent, mitigate, and respond to all hazards."

Plus, the USFA has a long-term strategy plan that ensures their impact and future. 

National Fire Academy & NFIRS

The USFA has a National Fire Academy (NFA) that has courses and programs that prepare you to deal more effectively with emergencies and disasters. They have various specialized training courses and advanced management programs. Each aspect of the academy is also free. Their main campus is in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) is a "voluntary reporting standard that fire departments use to uniformly report on the full range of their activities, from fire to emergency medical services to severe weather and natural disasters." The NFIRS is the largest, national, annual database of fire incident information. All data collected on NFIRS goes to the USFA and helps them analyze various fire problems, make recommendations, identify research focuses, and much more.  

Wildfires

USFA has multiple resources to help individuals prepare for a safe wildfire response and create a fire-adapted community. A fire-adapted community is when residents, agency partners, public departments and more work to identify their wildfire risk and world to reduce their risk of loss. More than 60,000 communities in the United States are at risk for wildfires. Some of these resources include:

• Fire Service & Healthy Landscapes

• Community Wildfire Protection Plan 
• Social Media Materials & Handouts

Prevention & EMS

USFA offers a variety of tools aimed at fire prevention and community risk reduction. The topics within that include:

• Home Fires
• Arson & Youth Firesetting
• Hotels & Vacation Rentals
• Outdoor Fires/Wildfires
• Vehicle Fires
• Workplace Fires
• Life Safety Hazards

The USFA also assists emergency medical services. They provide EMS with training, research, and outreach to keep personnel and their patients safe. The EMS section highlights various training opportunities and courses, social media content, and pictographs. 

Extra Resources

USFA Statistics

Get datasets and statistics on fires, fire risk, and fire departments in the United States.

USFA Podcasts

Listen to USFA and EMS experts on learning how to reduce fire and life safety risks to our communities and emergency responders. 

USFA Blog

Read various articles on fire and EMS information.