Writing Incident Reports

Writing incident reports is an essential part of our duties as firefighters. These reports are very important in the fire service for many reasons including, they give the USFA essential data to make critical decisions in all levels of government, keeping us informed as to what is going on in our sevice and how to prepare for these things, justifying budget requests and increases, and they are documents that are used during litigations and other legal matters. Fire reports are generally the responsibility of Battalion Chiefs, however all Officers and many others find themselves in charge of writing incident reports. It is very important that all reports be thorough, accurate, and professional as they serve as your memory as well as your first impression if they are ever used in court. I have included a few links below that will help us become better at writing our incident reports.

• Writing Your Structure Fire Report

• Report Writing

• Writing the Report

• 3 Fundamentals of Report Writing

• Report Writing: It Really is Important

• Writing a Proper Incident Report

• Writing Skills Overlooked

• NFIRS Website