The first of three meetings of the National Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting Task Force took place in December. The task force, chaired by Dennis Smith, was assembled to assist in implementing a national near-miss reporting system for the nation's fire service. The effort is funded by grants from the U.S. Fire Administration and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company.

The goal of this near-miss reporting system is to reduce firefighter line-of-duty deaths and injuries.

The “Father of Human Factors,” Dr. Robert Helmreich of the University of Texas, told the task force that his research into errors and reporting in the aviation and medical industry support that the system will work in the fire service and be just as successful. Because firefighters are generally driven by a desire to help and save lives, he believes that near-miss reporting for the fire service will be successful as long as firefighters realize that the lives they are saving are those of their fellow firefighters.

Helmreich also noted numerous parallels between the aviation industry and the fire service to support his premise. Helmreich noted that 70% of all commercial pilots have filed a near-miss report and 97% of the events reported are not known by any other source.

The aviation industry has accumulated 28 years of data in its near-miss reporting system. Linda Connell, director of the NASA Airline Safety Reporting System, told the group that the keys to the aviation system's documented success lie in its confidentiality, non-punitive posture, buy-in from all stakeholders and feedback from the stakeholders validating the program success.

The task force has a series of meetings planned to move the project from the concept stage to full-use delivery by October 2005. The aggressive timeline will involve an action plan that includes focus group meetings across the country, database development and testing based on focus group input, soliciting fire departments to test the system, and a roll out at IAFC's Fire-Rescue International 2005 in August.