Guide
How to file a NERIS report
NERIS replaced NFIRS on January 1, 2026. Here’s how a fire department gets set up, what goes into a report, and how to get it accepted the first time.
1. Get your department onboarded
NERIS onboarding starts with your chief. The NERIS team contacts the chief to begin, and approval to onboard has to come from the chief. Your state fire authority approves your department’s NERIS ID, which starts with FD followed by eight digits. Once the chief agrees, a department system administrator account is created, and that administrator adds other users.
If your chief hasn’t heard from NERIS, contact your State Fire Marshal’s office or the NERIS helpdesk at neris.helpdesk@ul.org.
2. Choose how you’ll enter reports
You can enter incidents in NERIS’s web-based data capture tool, which is free for verified departments, or in a records management system (RMS) connected to NERIS. If you use an RMS, your NERIS administrator enrolls it in your NERIS account using the vendor’s Client ID. That enrollment is what lets the software file for your department, and the administrator can remove it at any time.
3. Collect what the report needs
NERIS asks for more detail than NFIRS did, and what it needs depends on the call. Most reports include:
- Incident type, with up to two additional types, and the property use.
- Times: call answered and entered in CAD, plus dispatched, en route, on scene and cleared for each unit.
- Units and staffing that responded, and any mutual aid given or received.
- Actions taken, or the reason no action was taken.
- Fire details on fires: structure or outside, origin, cause, alarms and sprinklers, smoke alarms.
- Patients, injuries and casualties when they apply, including firefighter casualties.
- Hazmat and newer hazards when they apply, such as lithium-ion batteries, solar panels, CSST gas piping and home medical oxygen.
- A narrative describing what happened.
4. Check it before you file
Common reasons a report comes back with errors: times out of order (a unit cleared before it arrived), a required fire or EMS field left blank for that incident type, codes that conflict (an action taken plus “no action”), or a mutual aid entry using your own department’s ID. Check the report against NERIS’s rules before it goes in.
5. Approve and file
Have an officer or the chief review the report before it’s filed. When NERIS accepts it, keep the NERIS ID: it’s how you’ll correct the report later.
6. Correct it the right way
If something needs fixing after filing, update the existing record using its NERIS ID rather than filing a new report, and note why it changed.
How ExigentOps handles each step
Setup
A seven-step setup guide walks your NERIS administrator through enrolling ExigentOps, and ExigentOps sends your stations and units to your NERIS profile.
Writing
The form asks only the questions that fit the call. Incident types are searchable by what happened. AI can draft the narrative from the facts and the officer’s dictated notes.
Checking
“Check with NERIS” runs the report through NERIS’s own validation without filing it, and shows each problem in plain English next to the field.
Approving and filing
Only the chief approves and files. ExigentOps keeps the NERIS ID and blocks accidental double filing.
Correcting
The chief reopens a filed report with a reason, and ExigentOps re-sends it under the same NERIS ID with the history kept.
Questions
Who can file a NERIS report?
Members of a department that has been onboarded to NERIS, using either NERIS’s own data capture tool or records software the department has enrolled with NERIS. Your department’s NERIS administrator controls who has access.
What is a NERIS department ID?
A 10-character ID that starts with FD for fire departments, followed by eight digits: five for the FIPS code of the department’s headquarters location and three that keep it unique. Your state fire authority approves it.
Can a NERIS report be corrected after it’s filed?
Yes. A correction updates the existing record using its NERIS ID instead of creating a second report. In ExigentOps, the chief reopens the report with a reason and the correction is re-sent under the same ID.
How long do we have to file?
Deadlines are set by your state and department. ExigentOps lets you set your own filing deadline and reminds the chief about reports that are due soon or overdue.
Sources (checked October 22, 2026)
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