Editorial & Corrections Policy

How pages are produced

Every department, state, county, and ranking page on PlainFireData is generated from documented public datasets: the HIFLD Fire Stations registry (DHS/CISA), USFA National Fire Statistics (compiled from NFIRS), and FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grants (OpenFEMA). We load each dataset into a structured database and render every page from that database. The figures you see — personnel counts, station inventories, grant totals, state fire deaths and losses — are taken from those federal records, not hand-typed and not estimated by us.

This is a data-publishing model: one reviewed template renders every department page so that coverage is consistent across all 38,518 departments. We are transparent that these pages are produced programmatically through a continuous editorial pipeline from the source data, rather than written one at a time. The editorial work goes into the pipeline — how data is sourced, joined, and presented — into the methodology, and into the written guides and research, not into hand-authoring tens of thousands of near-identical department profiles, which would add no accuracy and invite inconsistency.

Sourcing standards

• Primary sources only. Station and personnel data comes from HIFLD; state fire statistics come from USFA/NFIRS; grant facts come from FEMA's OpenFEMA award records; wage context comes from BLS OEWS. We do not republish third-party summaries.
• Attribution in context. Each data page names its dataset and links to the methodology, which explains how HIFLD personnel fields are self-reported and how USFA statistics are compiled from voluntary NFIRS submissions.
• Derived values are labeled. Numbers we compute ourselves — per-capita rates, percentile rankings, and density measures — are presented as our analysis of the federal data, distinct from the agencies' published counts.
• No invented data. Where a field is missing for a department, the page says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate. Absence from a federal registry does not mean a community lacks fire protection.

Update cadence

HIFLD station data is refreshed by DHS/CISA on a roughly annual or biannual cycle; USFA state statistics reflect the most recent published year and typically lag 1–2 years while NFIRS submissions are compiled; FEMA grant data updates as new awards are announced. We refresh our database when any of these federal datasets releases an update and recompute the derived rankings and rates. Between releases the figures are stable because the source itself does not change.

Corrections process

If a figure on PlainFireData looks wrong, please tell us. Because our pages are generated from the federal datasets, a genuine error almost always traces back to either the source data or our processing of it — so this is how we handle a report:

1. Report. Use the contact page with the page URL and the number that looks off.
2. Verify. We compare the figure against the source record (HIFLD, USFA, or OpenFEMA) for that department, state, or year.
3. Fix at the source. If the value is wrong on our side, we correct it in the database and pipeline that generate the page — not just on the single page — so every affected page is fixed at once. If the figure faithfully reflects the federal data, we explain that and, where useful, add context.
4. Note it. Material corrections are reflected the next time the affected pages rebuild.

We aim to acknowledge data-error reports within a few business days.

Independence & affiliation

PlainFireData is an independent project, published by Kiznis Studio. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by HIFLD, the U.S. Fire Administration, FEMA, DHS/CISA, or any government agency. We present their public-domain data in a more searchable form and link back to the official sources throughout.