National Fire Data and Quality Partnership

The Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency/U.S. Fire Administration (DHS/FEMA/USFA) intends to negotiate and award a contract on a sole source basis (IAW FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)) with the National Fire Information Council (NFIC), PO Box 1025 State Road, Stow, MA 01775. The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 (PL 93-498) authorizes the National Fire Data Center (NFDC) in the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) to gather and analyze information on the magnitude of the nation's fire problem, as well as detailed characteristics and trends. The act further authorizes USFA to develop uniform data reporting methods and to encourage and assist state agencies in developing data and reporting fire damage. To carry out the intentions of the Act, the NFDC established the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) in the mid-1970s. For over 35 years NFIC has been the only national-level organization solely representing NFIRS state program managers and NFIRS metro program managers who are essential to the success of NFIRS data collection from over 24,000 fire departments throughout the United States that report NFIRS data. NFIC is a consortium of state-level and metro-level NFIRS program managers who are essential to the successful reporting, quality, and timeliness of fire data to NFIRS. Their role is critical to the reporting of more than 28 million incidents annually through NFIRS. NFIC will enhance outreach to local fire departments that record and report fire data through NFIRS. NFIC will work to have fire departments that currently do not report to NFIRS to start and, for those that currently report, work to encourage higher quality fire data reporting. There is no other national-level organization that focuses on fire data reporting and has expertise on state-level management and oversight of NFIRS. NFIC plays a vital role in the USFA's efforts to achieve an accurate nationwide analysis of the fire problem through support to NFIRS and its participating member states and metropolitan fire departments. NFIC's unique partnership with Federal, state and local participants has uniquely positioned them to support NFIRS at the national level. Additionally this partnership would allow information sharing on NFIRS with the state and local system users through NFIC's proprietary website: http://www.nfic.org/index.html. NFIC has extensive knowledge and experience with state and national-level fire service data reporting and data quality specifically through NFIRS. They are the only organization that has unique and focused capability with State NFIRS Program Managers. NFIC has extensive experience in working through State NFIRS Program Managers in encouraging participation of non-reporting fire departments as well as enhancing data quality among fire departments that do report. A special focus of this requirement will be assembling an annual meeting of NFIRS state program managers including new program managers, similar to meetings NFIC has conducted in the past. In addition, NFIC will develop an informal apprentice program to pair newly appointed state NFIRS program managers with more experienced managers already involved with NFIRS. It is the government's intention to issue a purchase order for a 22-month period of performance to complete the requirements of this action. This notice is NOT a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for competitive proposals and no solicitation document exists for this requirement. However, parties interested in responding to this notice shall submit a capabilities statement with technical data, sufficient to determine capability to perform this study. All capability statements received by the closing of this intent to sole source notice will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Submit capability statements (using PDF, MS Word, Excel attachments) to Jane Huwig-Leister, Contract Specialist at jane.huwig-leister@fema.dhs.gov. Statements are due not later than 12:00 p.m. Eastern on July 9, 2021. No telephone calls will be accepted. Primary Point of Contact: Jane Huwig-Leister Contracting Office Address: DHS/FEMA/NETC Building D, Room 122 16825 South Seton Avenue Emmitsburg, MD 21727 Place of Performance: Contractor's Location Classification Code: B537 NAICS Code: 813920 - Professional Organizations. The small business size standard is $15M [average annual receipts for preceding three years].