PRISM: Risk-to-Performance System for U.S. Fire Departments

PRISM is the fire service's risk-to-performance system, built and operated by Incident Management Technology (IMT). Three chained products on one verified data spine: an NFPA 1300 / 1750-compliant Community Risk Assessment, an adoptable Standard of Cover, and PRISM PERFORM that measures delivered response against the adopted standard.

Every score traces to its source row. Every report ships as both a print document and a self-contained interactive web portal. NFPA 1750 §10.3.2 requires every fire department to refresh its Community Risk Assessment on a five-year cycle — PRISM produces that deliverable in weeks, at posted pricing.

The PRISM System — Three Reports, One Data Spine

1 · PRISM CRA. An NFPA 1300 / 1750-compliant CRA for governing-body submission, accreditation, or grant applications. Includes community profiles, parcel-level building stock, drive-time response coverage on the real road network, ISO hydrant / water-supply coverage, integrated EMS risk, and a probability × impact risk score for every planning zone with four categories — Low, Moderate, High, or Critical. Print document + interactive web portal. One-time engagement starting at $1,000.

2 · PRISM SOC. An accreditation-grade Standard of Cover built on NFPA 1750 (2026), the unified deployment standard which consolidates and supersedes the legacy NFPA 1201 / 1710 / 1720 / 1730 standards. Critical-task ERF analysis, fire and EMS service lines, concurrent-call / unit-availability analysis, water supply, measurement rules (90th percentile), and an adoption resolution page. Print + portal. One-time engagement starting at $2,000. Includes PRISM CRA.

3 · PRISM PERFORM. Quarterly dashboard + annual printed compliance report from your CAD data: 90th-percentile alarm handling, turnout, travel, and total response — fire and EMS separately, by planning zone — plus ERF assembly and unit availability against the adopted standard. Annual subscription starting at $3,000/year. Includes PRISM CRA + PRISM SOC.

How We Work

How it is usually done. A firm arrives, runs interviews, leaves, and ships a six-figure PDF eight months later — $30,000–$150,000. By the time it lands, call volume has shifted, the apparatus has aged, and nobody in the room can tell you why the number on page 84 is the right one. The alternative on the market is a dashboard subscription: screens to look at, not the document a governing body has to adopt.

How we do it. The same analytical depth, productized — and we stay in the conversation. Your data, NFPA-aligned methodology, transparent inputs, defensible outputs. Every score drills back to the source row it came from, and every report renders from a verified data artifact, so the document your board adopted can be reproduced exactly.

• Practitioner-led. Decades of operational experience across career, combination, and volunteer departments shape every methodology decision.
• Traceable by design. No blended numbers — alarm handling, turnout, travel, and setup are measured separately.
• Built for the hard question. Every deliverable is designed to survive the moment a governing body asks "how do you know?"

Engagement Models — Assess, Defend, Sustain

Three chained engagements on one data spine. The Standard of Cover provably derives from your CRA, and PERFORM provably measures against the standard your board adopted — so the next step never re-platforms.

• Assess (weeks, not a year) — Community Risk Assessment. For departments that have never completed an NFPA 1300 risk assessment, or whose last one is past its five-year refresh under NFPA 1750 §10.3.2. Outcome: a probability × impact, standards-aligned risk profile of the community you protect.
• Defend (weeks, not a year) — Standard of Cover and capital cases. For departments heading into a staffing, station, or apparatus decision local government will question. Outcome: a defensible service level, with the methodology and inputs shown in the open.
• Sustain (ongoing) — PRISM PERFORM. For departments that want performance measured continuously instead of re-argued every budget season. Outcome: proof that the standard your board adopted is being met, quarter after quarter.

For Local Government

Township and borough managers, councils, supervisors, and finance directors don't need another binder — they need a defensible service level to put in front of elected officials, and a partner who will explain the data instead of hiding behind it. A community that knows its risk, adopts a standard, and measures its performance can defend every dollar of its fire and EMS budget — and every minute of its response.

Methodology

Built to NFPA 1300 (Standard on Community Risk Assessment and Community Risk Reduction Plan Development) and NFPA 1750 (2026), the unified standard for the organization and deployment of fire suppression, EMS, and special operations — including the five-year CRA refresh requirement under §10.3.2. NFPA 1750 consolidates and supersedes the deployment use of the legacy 1201 / 1710 / 1720 / 1730 standards; PRISM cites the current standard.

• Probability × Impact Risk Model. Every planning zone is scored on two axes, per NFPA 1750 §10.3.6. Probability: incident history, exposure, community conditions, trend. Impact: life safety, property, economic consequence, response capability. The composite (1–25) classifies each zone Low, Moderate, High, or Critical.
• Response Capability, Modeled on Real Roads. First-due travel time is modeled per zone on the actual road network from your actual stations; water supply is measured against the ISO creditable-hydrant standard.
• Fire and EMS, One Model. EMS treated as a co-equal service line — demand, at-risk population, AED coverage, and the concurrent-call reality of shared crews.
• Honest Data Discipline. Where a source can't be verified, PRISM labels the affected scores provisional and provides the data request to fix it. Nothing partial is presented as complete.

What's in a PRISM CRA Deliverable

1. Executive Summary & Findings — written for elected officials
2. Community & Demographic Profiles — all nine NFPA 1300 §4.3 profiles
3. Parcel-Level Building Stock — county assessor data
4. Response Coverage Analysis — real road network, 4:00 first-engine objective
5. Hydrant & Water-Supply Coverage — ISO 1,000-ft creditable-hydrant standard
6. EMS & Medical Response Risk — concurrent-call analysis
7. Risk Matrix & Occupancy Hazard Classification (§10.3.5–.6)
8. Community Risk Reduction Plan — all five E's per priority (NFPA 1300 Chapter 5)

Data Sources

• U.S. Census Bureau — American Community Survey (ACS)
• CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)
• FEMA National Risk Index (NRI)
• Department & Dispatch Records (CAD / RMS / NFIRS · county PSAP timestamps)
• County & Local GIS — parcels, hydrants, facilities
• Road Network & Facilities — OpenStreetMap · HIFLD

Pricing

All prices are starting points. Final pricing is aligned to the size of your agency or community.

For reference: a traditional CRA consulting engagement runs $30,000–$150,000 over 4–8 months. Dashboard-only platforms (GIS subscriptions) run $4,950–$21,500 per year but do not produce the CRA document itself.

Who Builds and Operates PRISM

PRISM is built and operated by Incident Management Technology (IMT), a privately-held, bootstrapped, practitioner-led software company serving the U.S. fire service. PRISM is led by Justin Brundage, currently Assistant Chief at Berwyn Fire Company in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Frequently Asked Questions