The short answer: a fire department keeps records for three reasons.
Some are reported out (incidents to NERIS, patient care to the state). Some earn
credit (ISO looks at training, testing, hydrant and pre-plan records). And some
protect your people and the department for decades (exposure and medical records,
controlled substances). The record has to be complete, dated, signed by the person
who did the work, and findable years later.
No records, no credit
When the U.S. Fire Administration summarized ISO's 2012 Fire Suppression Rating
Schedule, it put the rule plainly: no records, no credit. The list it gave includes
hours worked by on-duty personnel, pump tests, hose tests, aerial ladder tests,
training, and building familiarization records for pre-incident planning.
The work being done is not enough. If the hose was tested and the record is in a
binder at the wrong station, the credit is zero. Training alone is worth up to 9
points, hydrant records up to 7, and apparatus and equipment testing controls about
10 more.
The records, and how long to keep them
Federal rules set a floor for some records. Most retention periods come from your
state's records retention schedule for local government, so check yours. Where a
state example is shown below, it is Tennessee's published schedule for fire
departments.
| Record |
Why you keep it |
How long |
| Incident reports |
The legal record of the response, and since January 1, 2026, reported nationally through NERIS. |
Your state's retention schedule |
| Patient care reports (EMS) |
The patient's medical record, the state's EMS data (NEMSIS) and the billing record. |
Set by state law, often longer for minors |
| Training records |
ISO training credit and proof of required training. |
Example: employment plus 3 years |
| Pre-incident plans and building familiarization |
ISO credits building familiarization for pre-incident planning. |
Keep current, with the review history |
| Apparatus inspections, maintenance and pump tests |
NFPA guidance and ISO pump test credit; supports warranty claims and replacement requests. |
Life of the apparatus |
| Hose, ladder and aerial tests |
ISO testing credit and the defense if a tool fails. |
Every annual test, for the life of the item |
| Hydrant inspections and flow tests |
ISO water supply credit and what responding crews can expect from each hydrant. |
Every inspection and test |
| SCBA tests and mask fit tests |
NFPA 1850 (which absorbed NFPA 1852) and OSHA's respiratory protection rules. |
Life of the SCBA; fit tests until the next fit test |
| Turnout gear inspections and cleaning |
NFPA 1850 inspection, cleaning and retirement requirements. |
Life of the gear |
| Exposure records |
What each member was exposed to, for health and claims later in life. |
30 years under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1020 |
| Employee medical records |
Physicals and exposure-related medical records. |
Employment plus 30 years under 29 CFR 1910.1020 |
| Controlled substances (EMS) |
DEA records under the PPAEMA rule: receipt, counts, transfers, administration, waste. |
At least 2 years, readily retrievable |
| Medical supply inventory and expirations |
Shows stock on each rig was in date, and supports recalls and grant reporting. |
Department policy |
General information, not legal advice. Your state's retention schedule, your
attorney and your medical director decide what applies to your department.
Incident reports and patient care reports belong together
A fire department that runs EMS writes two reports for many calls: the incident
report that goes to NERIS and the patient care report that goes to the state EMS
office in NEMSIS format. They describe the same call, the same unit and the same
times. When they live in separate systems, the times drift apart and nobody can
answer a simple question like how many patients came from a given structure fire.
Keep the incident number on both, and make sure one can be found from the other.
That link is what turns two stacks of reports into one record of what the
department did.
In Emergency Logs, a patient care report can be linked to its NERIS incident by
incident number and unit, so the PCR and the incident report open from each other.
Each PCR is checked against the NEMSIS v3.5.1 data rules before a supervisor approves
it and it is sent to the state repository.
Records that earn ISO credit
ISO reviews look back at what you can show. Four habits keep the credit you have
earned:
- One place for each record type, not one binder per station.
- A date and a name on everything. Who did the test, who taught the class, who reviewed the pre-plan.
- The schedule built in. Annual hose, ladder, pump and hydrant tests and pre-plan reviews show up as due before they are missed.
- Print on demand. When the reviewer asks, the report should take minutes, not a weekend.
Response data counts too. ISO's deployment analysis looks at how fast units arrive,
and NFPA 1710 measures turnout and travel at the 90th percentile. Emergency Logs
builds that report from your NERIS incidents, by station and by month, with a data
quality check you can print for the review.
Records that protect your people
Exposure and medical records outlast careers. OSHA requires exposure records to be
kept for 30 years and medical records for the length of employment plus 30 years.
For a firefighter, the most useful exposure record is specific: which call, which
set of gear, what it was exposed to and whether it was cleaned. A line in a daily
log that says "structure fire" will not help anyone in 2050.
Where Emergency Logs fits
Emergency Logs keeps these records on one login, dated and attributed as crews do
the work:
NERIS incident reporting,
training records,
pre-plans with review dates,
truck and station checks,
fleet maintenance,
hose, ladder and aerial testing,
hydrant inspections,
SCBA tests and mask fit tests,
turnout gear and exposure records,
controlled substance records and
EMS inventory management with expiration
alerts. Records stay in your department's own database and do not age off.
Sources