Fire Department NERIS migration is here, or right around the corner. ( See the migration rollout schedule. ) Here we help you navigate common speed bumps getting your department migrated to NERIS.
If you cannot find your fire department in the Responserack NERIS ID pages (or on the official NERIS site), it is possible that your fire department is not yet in NERIS.
Request “Add a Fire Department” using the NERIS Service Desk to provide your details. ( You’ll want to provide NERIS with your FDID (if available), FD name, address, Chief’s name and contact information. )
If you don’t have your invitation by now, it is most likely that your departments / chief’s name and email address are not associated correctly at NERIS. That, or they sent the email to Chief, who missed it (perhaps it is in their spam folder).
Search for an email with the subject “Welcome to NERIS” from the neris@ul.org sender email address.
Complete this form for your department:
Some states seem to be loading fire departments in batch, and some require you to initiate the process. Complete this form (above) confirms your department’s participation in the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS), and might start a series of steps with your state fire marshal’s office, prior to you invitation being approved.
Alternatively, if you don’t think your state has been requiring the above - or you’ve done it, ask NERIS and they’ll tell you:
Send a request for your invitation using the NERIS Service Desk and provide your NERIS ID if you can, and confirm your Chief’s contact information. NERIS will issue a new invitation, or provide you with guidance.
NERIS Invitations go to Chief, who is then able to invite other department members.
A Geographic Information System (GIS) polygon is used to represent your district boundary. For many of us, NERIS has pre-loaded a reasonable approximation of our boundary. If not, and you don’t have one or know how to create one, you can still submit incidents without it.
That said, your local county GIS team often will have a boundary on file for you, especially if you are a fire protection district. (If your residents have to vote for your fire protection district the GIS boundary will be on file.)
You might not know what a PSAP ID is (it’s a Public Safety Answering Point, i.e., a 911 call center).
We have some PSAP IDs listed on our Public Safety page, but you’ll likely want to communicate with your dispatch center. You can send them this link about NERIS Fire Department Entity Data so they can see the questions asked. Let them know that all their fire departments (not just you) will want to know the answers to these questions.
Note: Again, you can still submit incidents without it.
Once you are able to log in to NERIS, you can finish your department information and enter your NERIS station and unit information. This article can help guide you:
You might know NFIRS, but you need help submitting to NERIS. Here are some resources that should help:
Let me know if I failed to cover something you need.
Adam Jack, Responserack
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or I missed anything.
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