“In the constant battle to match critical resources to the needs in our communities, FireCARES and NFORS provide valuable information designed to decrease overall community risks and vulnerability. The overarching goal of both FireCARES and NFORS is to assist in making sound decisions, based on quantifiable data that will provide for safe, effective, and efficient emergency response services.”

Chief Otto Drozd

Past President

Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association

Seminole County Fire Rescue Department

“NFORS was created and designed to be a tool for fire chiefs to assess their resources deployment and operational performance, thereby helping to improve safety for both citizens and firefighters. My Chief Officers and I use NFORS to make daily decisions regarding personnel decontamination and unit exhaustion, and it provides us a method to look at our performance, through multiple frames of reference, in real time. NFORS is an essential planning and budgeting tool that provides a granular look at the capability and capacity or fire department resources within the community.”

Chief Tom Jenkins

Past President and Chairman of the Board

International Fire Chiefs Association

“FireCARES assesses community risks and fire department response to risk events. It is a big-data analytical system that can be used with NFORS to provide powerful insights into resource deployment and on-scene operations. Both of these tools leverage the results of the landmark NIST studies on residential and high-rise fires, bringing scientific accuracy to deployment decisions and firefighter safety.”

Harold A. Schaitberger

General President

International Association of Fire Fighters

“The launch of FireCARES represents a watershed event in firefighter safety. We brought together an interdisciplinary team of engineers, firefighter research scholars, statisticians, and the firefighter community to produce a community assessment risk tool to benefit society.”

Robert Santos

Chief Methodologist

Urban Institute

“FireCARES uses advancements in measurement science which allow for a better understanding of how community characteristics uniquely define their fire risks and demand for fire department services.”

David T. Butry, Ph.D.

Chief

Applied Economics Office

National Institute of Standards and Technology

“IPSDI is empowering fire departments to harness the power of their data to better protect their communities with two cutting edge data science solutions. FireCARES is a platform that takes the complex issue of data analysis and develops tools to make data useful for the fire service. It is becoming a total launch point for the fire service to recognize the power of data and the value of quality data entry. NFORS brings real-time visualization of fire service effectiveness and efficiency right to the department so they can gain insights and save lives.”

Stephen Kerber, PE

Director

UL Firefighter Safety Research Institute

“FireCARES is a cloud-based, big-data analytical platform that brings together numerous layers of information — from residential parcel data to detailed characteristics of high-rise and commercial buildings — to help policy makers and fire departments allocate the right resources for their unique communities. It is an important tool that will improve our ability to assess and prepare for hazards, and the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin is a proud partner in its development.”

Dean Sharon Wood

Cockrell School of Engineering

The University of Texas at Austin

“The need for fire service leaders to provide transparency in their actions, make decisions based on hard data, promote a culture that can adapt quickly and innovate with creativity, is the new normal.  FireCARES and NFORS serve as contemporary tools for agencies wishing to improve as it provides easy access to necessary risk and performance data. Such data are foundational in the Commission on Fire Accreditation International accreditation process where agencies self-assess their organization to determine risk and safety needs for the community, evaluate performance, align resources and establish methods to continuously improve.”

Allan Cain

Director of Public Safety

President of the Board

Center for Public Safety Excellence, Inc.

“I am truly humbled by your efforts in organizing emergency response data and making information easily accessible to everyday users. Your efforts are providing enhanced information to many organizations across the country. Ultimately this leads to better decisions and a higher level of service delivery to our citizens. You are making a difference!”

Steve Aseltine

Division Chief of Risk Management/Accreditation

West Metro Fire Rescue