Ohio Fire Marshal marks 1 year of enhanced fire incident reporting system
One year after integrating cutting-edge technology into its incident management system, the Ohio Department of Commerce's Division of State Fire Marshal (SFM) is equipped with better and more accurate information needed to protect Ohio lives.
In February 2024, SFM announced it had enhanced its data collection capability by integrating a state-of-the-art database management solution into the Ohio Fire Incident Reporting Management System (OFIRMS). For years, the Division’s Fire Prevention Bureau has used OFIRMS to collect incident data from fire departments across Ohio to identify trends and inform community risk reduction efforts.
However, new granular data collected over the past year is providing SFM with significantly more detailed information than ever before.
More than 1,100 active Ohio fire departments are registered with OFIRMS, which collects an average of 150,000 incident reports each month. Over the past year alone, more than 1.8 million incident reports were submitted using this enhanced capability.
SFM Fire Prevention Bureau Chief Anita Metheny says the level of detail available in this recently collected data is a game changer in their effort to understand risk and leverage real-world information to protect the lives and properties of Ohioans.
“This new system is providing us with highly detailed information that was not previously available,” Metheny said. “By accessing and analyzing the data we receive from departments across the state, we are able to identify risks sooner and use that information to help guide communities in risk reduction plans that will ultimately save lives.”
One example of how SFM has leveraged OFIRMS data in the past to help Ohioans is its Thermal Fuse Program. According to information collected from the state’s fire departments, smoking-related fires are the leading cause of fire fatalities in Ohio. Data shows that Ohioans have a four-percent chance of dying in a home fire caused by smoking and a 10-percent chance of being injured in one of these fires.
SFM determined that many of these incidents involve individuals who smoke while using home oxygen therapy systems. In response to this information, the Fire Prevention Bureau has worked to raise awareness about a life-saving device called thermal fuses. When installed on oxygen tubing, thermal fuses are designed to stop the flow of oxygen the moment a fire is detected, quickly preventing further spread.
Through SFM’s Thermal Fuse Program, the Fire Prevention Bureau collaborates with fire departments statewide to equip them with thermal fuses they can install on Ohioans’ oxygen systems during calls. To date, more than 4,000 thermal fuses have been distributed to fire departments across the state.
As a result of this new detailed information now being collected through OFIRMS, SFM is able to identify similar trends earlier on and identify practical actions in response. For example, the Fire Prevention Bureau will be able to identify specific equipment involved in a fire incident, providing data at a granular level that was not readily available until now.
From this new data, SFM discovered that from February 2024 to February 2025, cooking ranges were involved in 1,800 cooking-related fires as well as 488 fire incidents involving heating equipment. By analyzing the specific equipment involved in these fires, such as makes and models of appliances, SFM is able to more easily identify any trends and patterns. In addition to guiding education and outreach efforts aimed at fire prevention, the data can potentially help uncover widespread issues with equipment or appliances that can be communicated to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and inform future recalls.
The updated OFIRMS system also directly benefits the state’s fire service in that fire departments across the state can more easily and quickly report information directly to SFM, including through the use of apps on smartphones and tablets. Once this information is analyzed at SFM, the Fire Prevention Bureau presents this information via dashboards to fire departments, offering key information they previously lacked.
“We want to arm our fire departments with as much quality information as we can,” Metheny said. “Ultimately, just as the Fire Prevention Bureau does, departments can use this data to better understand what is happening in their communities and take a combination of proactive and responsive steps to improve safety for their residents.”
Moving into the second year of utilizing this updated OFIRMS system, the Fire Prevention Bureau anticipates collecting even more detailed data to identify year-over-year trends within the state’s fire services.
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