The International Association of Fire Chiefs announced Friday that it will develop a Near-Miss Reporting System for the fire service supported by more than $1 million in grants from the Department of Homeland Security and Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company.

Mechanisms for implementing the system, which will more than likely be Internet-based, are still being worked out, said IAFC 2003-2004 president Ernest Mitchell, but the system will track “close-call” incidents for the fire service – those incidents that do not lead to physical harm, but that would have, were it not for some fortunate break in the chain of events.

“The IAFC is committed to improving the safety of millions of firefighters with this grant,” said Mitchell, 2003-2004 president of the IAFC. “This anonymous reporting system will be crucial in providing the fire service with the information it needs to create change in operations and training to avoid injuries and deaths in the future.”

The National Fire Protection Association estimates that for every 100 incidents of injuries, one million close-call incidents go unreported. The Near Miss Reporting System will help the fire service track these incidents and learn from these errors to increase its overall ability to protect firefighters and the communities they serve.

The airline industry founded a near-miss reporting system 25 years ago and can prove statistically that tracking near-miss incidents has significantly decreased the number of aviation injuries and deaths. Several other organizations, including the department of Homeland Security, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the U.S. military, are receiving similar results from near-miss reporting systems.

A $750,000 Fire Prevention and Safety Grant under the Assistance to Firefighters grant program and a $322,000 grant from the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company through its Fireman’s Fund Heritage initiative will fund the project.

“The Department of Homeland Security and USFA are aware and very concerned about the firefighter death and injury rates,” said U.S. Fire Administrator R. David Paulison. “These unacceptable figures will only be reduced when we stop focusing solely on line-of-duty deaths, and begin to gather and study the near-miss information, which will ultimately lead to the prevention of firefighter losses.”