The National Fire Incident Reporting System is the collection of national fire loss data for fires attended by the fire service. It includes information on factors involved in fire ignition, spread, and extinguishment. It has been developed with recognition of the importance of serving the needs of state, regional, municipal, and local fire jurisdictions, as well as those at the Federal level. A representative selection of states has been identified for cooperative preliminary studies of this system. The system is based on use of the fire data reporting procedures developed by the National Fire Protection Association. Data elements have been selected as usual with many compromises to provide the most versatile use of data readily available. A review is presented of the way in which the data collected could be used in locating and analyzing fire problem areas as they occur. Brief mention is included on work under way to report and classify fire incidents on an international scale.