It was announced at a press conference in Denver, Colorado, after having completed a pilot program involving 38 fire departments across the country.
The Near Miss Reporting System aims to prevent injuries and save lives of other firefighters by collecting, sharing and analyzing near-miss experiences.
Overall these reports help to formulate strategies, reduce firefighter injuries and fatalities, and enhance the safety culture of the fire service.
[1] A near-miss event is defined as an opportunity to improve health and safety practices based on a condition or an incident with potential for more serious consequence.".
The U.S. Navy's Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) was selected as the first tool for analyzing firefighter near-miss reports.
Errors are classified as resulting from lack of skill, education or training, poor decision making, or misperception.
It acknowledges that a fire departments top management is ultimately responsible for organizational culture, and may have contributed to some degree to a firefighter's actions that led to a near-miss event.
Based on the first year of data, the various working groups of the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System have offered the following recommendations for error-management and to improve firefighter performance and safety.