A fire department annual report can be as simple or as detailed as the department’s leadership desires. Small departments may decide to include a list of responses and significant accomplishments, while larger departments may include many more details about the fire department and its performance from the previous year. Remember, this is a major way you communicate with your external customers. Items that may be part of a fire department annual report include:

• Cover/Title Page
• Introductory letter from the fire chief
• Department Mission statement
• Department Values statement
• Department Vision statement
• Goals and objectives
• Performance measures
• Organizational chart
• Community demographics
• ISO Rating and what the rating means to the community
• Budget
  • Current fiscal year breakdown
  • Previous fiscal year actual
  • Grants applied for and grants received
  • Cost-per-call or other cost-per-unit measure
  • Revenue sources and percent of revenue from each source
• List of accomplishments
• Incident responses from the preceding year
  • Summary of all responses
  • Fires by type, fires by fixed property use, etc.
  • Incidents by time of day, day of week, district, etc.
  • Dollar loss by type of fire, day of week, property type, etc.
  • Value of all property at risk and amount of property saved
  • False alarm analysis
  • Historical trends
  • Rolling five-year analysis of all types of responses
  • Number of personnel responding by type of fire, hours worked, etc.
  • Response time by quarter and overall annual– average and by percentile
  • Response time breakdown by component (ring time, call processing time, turnout time, travel time) by quarter and overall annual
  • List of high dollar saved incidents with a synopsis of the incident.
  • List of high dollar loss incidents with a synopsis of the incident
  • Other data reports as determined by local needs
• Community Risk Reduction activities
  • List of public education programs and number citizens touched.
  • Code enforcement activities
  • Pre-fire planning activities, number of pre-plans, hours invested
  • Fire inspections by inspectors and company personnel
  • Number of fire code violations found and corrected
  • Average number of days to achieve code compliance
  • Fire department attendance at public events
  • Fire department fire protection and EMS standbys at special events
  • Citizen’s fire academy program activities
  • CPR, CERT and other community preparedness programs the department is part of
• Fire investigation activities
  • Number of incendiary and suspicious fires
  • Number of arson cases prosecuted
  • Fires by cause
  • Fires by location of origin
  • Number of fires where the cause was determined
• Training activities
  • Total number of training hours for the department and the average for each firefighter
  • Number of training drills
  • Subjects covered and hours of training by subject
  • New recruit training programs
  • Certifications achieved
  • Technical courses completed
• Personnel roster (do not include personal contact information)
  • Rank
  • Position
  • Level of firefighter certification
  • Level of EMS certification
  • Years of service
  • Awards and recognitions
  • Promotions
  • Retirements
• Apparatus roster
  • List by type and age
  • List new acquisitions
  • List annual cost for fuel, maintenance, and repairs
  • Cost per mile or hour to operate
• Facilities (fire stations) roster
  • Address of each station
  • Description of primary response (first-due) area - a map is best
  • List of apparatus assigned to each station
  • List of maintenance and repairs
  • Annual cost to operate the station(s)
• History of the fire department

Use tables, charts and graphs to present numbers and data so it is easy to understand. Compare statistics with different years, for example the number of structure fires, to show trends, especially if the trend shows improvement and is the result of Community Risk Reduction efforts by the fire department.

The department should organize the report in a format that best presents and promotes the department’s contributions to the community. One example of a format is to organize the report by major headings.

• Fire Suppression – response to all types of fires
• Emergency Medical Services – responses providing basic and advanced life support to the ill and injured
• Special Operations and Rescue Techniques (SORT) – unique and extraordinary rescue operations, such as confined space rescue, swift water rescue and high angle rescue
• Hazardous Materials Response (Hazmat) – control and mitigation of spills of dangerous and hazardous materials, including home or business pesticide spills and spills arising from transportation accidents
• Community Risk Reduction – tours, talks, press releases and other activities to promote public awareness of fire safety, including visits to schools, Fire Prevention Week activities, smoke detector programs and fire department displays and promotions at public events
• Fire Inspections – commercial fire code compliance inspections, pre-fire planning inspections and activities, sprinkler system installation inspections, plan reviews, fire hydrant flow tests and residential inspections
• Fire Investigations – cause and origin investigations of every fire, participation in a county or combined jurisdiction arson task force
• Other Services – fire hydrant maintenance, assistance to other city departments, community services (blood pressure checks, health fairs, CPR training, CERT classes, etc.), mutual aid and automatic aid to other fire departments; work with community groups, service on local committees and civic organizations
• Fire Department Infrastructure – maintenance and repairs on tools and equipment, technical services such as annual fit testing, refilling of compressed air cylinders and maintain the fire department’s inventory

Use pictures throughout the report to highlight fire department personnel at work on fire or emergency scenes and involved in community activities. Be careful when using photos of incident scenes, especially EMS calls, to protect the privacy of patients and victims. Screen the photos carefully as the department should not use photos that show improper fire ground procedures, techniques, or safety violations.