Invalid NFIRS Filename

Import (or uploading) a file to FEMA USFA eNFIRS requires download the file from Responserack and then uploading it again. Unfortunately some problems can occur in this process, both of which are outside of Responserack control.

Not an NFIRS file format

The filename (________________.htm) is invalid.

Anything like .htm or .html is a web page (also known as hypertext markup language) and is not an NFIRS export file. Perhaps the user pressed "save as" on the Responserack page, but this is not an export file. Press the "Download" button on the Responserack page to get a .nfirs or .txt file.

Special Characters in Filename

The filename (________________ (1).nfirs) is invalid.

NFIRS does not allow filenames with spaces or parentheses, e.g. '(' or ')' and other such characters. NFIRS only allows letters and numbers and things like dashes.

Unfortunately if you download a file once, but then attempt to download another file with the same filename, some operating systems (e.g. MacOS) might insert " (1)" or even " (2)" and so on ... into the filename. That is "{space}{left parenthesis}{number}{right parenthesis}" and most of those are disallowed by eNFIRS.

Some options are:

1) clean your Downloads folder (to remove old copies of the file) and the re-download.

2) Download your files to a new location (e.g. a custom folder you create for each export.)

3) Rename your file to remove space and ( and ) but this can clash with older file names.