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RedAlert vs EPR FireWorks: Thirty Years of Fire, Built Around Your Department

A side-by-side look at two fire records platforms, built by companies at very different points in their history.

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  • Thirty years of fire, and nothing else. Alpine Software has built fire department software since 1994. EPR's own announcement dates its founding to 2016.
  • Built around your department. Add custom fields, custom forms, and custom workflows to any record in the system, and every field flows straight into your reporting. When you need something more involved, like a custom report, Alpine's team in Rochester builds it with you.
  • Real apps, not a browser window. RedAlert ships native mobile applications for alerting, field work, and the apparatus tablet, and crews plot hydrants, edit preplans, and draw incident perimeters on the map in the Responder App on their own phones. EPR describes FireWorks as browser-based, with a separate mobile app for staffing.
  • Buy the modules you need. RedAlert is priced per module, so a volunteer department with 200 calls a year does not pay for an enterprise suite it will never open.
  • Attendance you can actually defend. The RedAlert Kiosk is a station-mounted biometric check-in station with call-triggered time windows. EPR publicly markets pay-per-call and volunteer contribution tracking, and no station-mounted check-in hardware appears in its public materials.
  • White-glove onboarding. A dedicated, Rochester-based project lead manages your rollout, migrates your data with nothing lost, configures the system, and runs weekly meetings with your team until you are live.
  • Support from Rochester, New York. Real people you can call and email, onshore, in the same building as the engineers who build the software.

Choose RedAlert if...

  • You run a volunteer or combination department and want software built for how you actually operate
  • You need custom fields, forms, and workflows built around your department, not a template
  • You need verifiable attendance for a LOSAP, pay-per-call, stipend, or points program
  • You want a native Responder App that lets crews get alerted, respond, and plot hydrants and update preplans from their own phones, not a browser tab
  • You want to buy only the modules your department will use
  • You want a dedicated project lead who migrates your data, configures your system, and meets with your team weekly until you are live
  • You want to call a U.S.-based support team and reach someone who knows your system

Consider EPR FireWorks if...

  • You need NEMSIS-compliant ePCR alongside your fire records
  • You are consolidating many software categories into one enterprise suite

NERIS Compliant

Listed on FSRI's own integration partners page.

Since 1994

Over 1,000 departments and 200,000 first responders.

Onshore Support

Rochester, NY. Same building as engineering.

Configured to You

Custom fields, forms, and reports on any record.

Side by Side Comparison

Built Around Your Department

Category RedAlert EPR FireWorks What This Means
Custom Fields & Workflows Table-driven SQL architecture. Departments add dropdowns, checkboxes, and free text fields to any record in the system (incidents, personnel, apparatus, properties, training, and attendance) and set up workflows around how they operate, with Alpine's team building anything more involved. Public materials describe a unified cloud platform with configurable modules. If your department tracks it, it can be a field, on any record in the system. Your team adjusts fields and forms as your needs change, and Alpine's team in Rochester builds the bigger pieces with you.
Custom Forms The forms your members fill out are built to your department: truck checks, training records, fire reports, special studies, plus-one codes, property inspection checklists, personnel records, and more, with your own fields. Publicly markets configurable modules across fire and EMS operations. Your members fill out forms your department designed, not a generic template, and every field they complete is available for reporting.
Reporting & Analytics Hundreds of built-in reports across every module, plus custom reports built by Alpine's engineering team. Every custom field and form feeds reporting, which is how custom payroll, ISO, OSHA, and point-program reports get built. Publicly markets analytics and compliance modules. When the report you need does not exist, Alpine's engineering team builds it. Thirty years of department requests are why most of what you need is already there.

Operations

Category RedAlert EPR FireWorks What This Means
Incident Reporting & NERIS NERIS Compliant. Incident templates, one-click narrative generation, custom plus-one codes, and a validator that catches errors before submission. Reports can be started from the apparatus tablet, a phone, or a desk. Publicly markets NERIS compliance and a dedicated NERIS module. RedAlert reports start before anyone sits down: from the rig on scene, from a phone, or at a desk. Templates handle the calls you run every week, and the narrative generates in one click.
Pre-Incident Planning & Mapping Preplans, properties, hazmat, dispatch warnings, site plans, and contacts can be created and edited in the Responder App on a phone or tablet, as well as in Desktop. Crews plot properties, hydrants, and points of interest onto the map from the field, with day, night, and satellite views and custom layers per user. Parent and child property relationships for malls, campuses, and complex sites. Public materials indicate pre-incident planning tools with mapping, and reference hydrant locations, Knox box codes, and FDC points delivered to responders. The crew walking the building updates the preplan from a phone while standing in it, and the inspector, the officer, and the responding crew all work from that same record.
Field Mapping & Incident Shapes Members draw polygons, lines, and circles on the map in the Responder App: a fire perimeter, a road closure, a staging radius. Shapes can be tied to a NERIS incident, styled by color and opacity, and set to expire at a date and time. Responding units and responding personnel appear on the same map. Public materials reference mapping within pre-incident planning and incident command tools. Draw the perimeter, mark the road closure, or set the staging area from the scene, and every member looking at the map sees it. Shapes expire on their own, so last week's closure is not cluttering this week's map.
Hydrants & Water Supply Crews view, plot, inspect, and flow test hydrants in the Responder App on a phone or tablet. Enter the full three-outlet flow test and a one-tap calculation returns available flow at 0, 10, and 20 psi, then writes the results back to the hydrant record, including its NFPA class. Out-of-service hydrants show darkened on the responder's map, and primary, secondary, and tertiary hydrants attach to each preplan. Import from CSV, GIS, and shapefiles. Publicly markets hydrant inspections, flow testing, and GIS mapping as a module. The flow test happens at the hydrant, on a phone, and the math is done for you. An out-of-service hydrant goes dark on the map automatically, every preplan that depended on it is flagged, and flow test curves print in the format ISO reviewers expect.
Fire Prevention & Inspections iPad inspections with your own occupancy types, permit types, and violation code sets. Permits generated from inspections with automatic renewal letters. Investigations case management with court-ready reports. Public materials indicate fire prevention and inspection modules, plus a state-level fire prevention suite for fire marshals. Your occupancy types, your permit workflows, and your violation codes, configured to how your jurisdiction actually enforces rather than how a template assumes it does.
Training & Certifications Course records, certification expiration tracking with advance warning, event scheduling, and verified attendance capture at the Kiosk. Publicly markets a training and learning management module, described as including course delivery. Expirations are flagged before they lapse, drill attendance comes from verified check-in instead of a sign-in sheet, and training hours feed your point or stipend program automatically.
Assets, Inventory & Maintenance Four record types with their own fields: general inventory, SCBA testing, hose testing, and apparatus. Location tracking down to the compartment and shelf. QR and barcode scanning from any phone or tablet. Work orders with parts, labor, and vendor cost. Publicly markets equipment and logistics, inventory, and equipment tracking modules. Truck checks happen in the bay by scanning a QR code with any phone. A failed check opens a work order that tracks the part, the labor, and the vendor cost through to completion.
Attendance, LOSAP & Award Programs The RedAlert Kiosk: station-mounted biometric check-in by fingerprint, key fob, or ID card, with photo verification and CAD-triggered time windows that lock automatically. Point, stipend, and pay-per-call programs configured to your plan document. Attendance can also be recorded in Desktop or Mobile without the Kiosk. Publicly markets pay-per-call tracking and volunteer hour and contribution tracking for recognition and incentives within its workforce module. No station-mounted check-in hardware appears in EPR's public materials. Tracking points and verifying attendance are different things. RedAlert's Kiosk requires the member's own fingerprint or credential, at the station, inside a window the call defined, with a photo. If your program distributes public money, that is the record that holds up.

Personnel and Scheduling

Category RedAlert EPR FireWorks What This Means
Personnel & Roster One member record driving alerting, station check-in, app access, training, certifications, and response history. Permissions configured to your command structure down to the field level. Publicly markets workforce management and personnel modules as part of the unified platform. Add a member once and that record drives their alerting, check-ins, app access, and training file. Nobody who left last spring is still getting alerts.
Scheduling Any repeating rotation, time codes and accrual banks built to your definitions, custom payroll reports formatted for your payroll system, and duty crew shifts measured against actual Kiosk clock-in. Publicly markets StaffWorks shift management with open-shift bidding, swaps, automated shift filling, and payroll integration. Payroll reports come out in the format your payroll system imports, built around your own time codes and accrual banks. Departments wanting fully automated shift coverage should evaluate that requirement specifically.
Mobile Access Native applications: RedAlert Mobile for field work, RedAlert Responder for alerting, and RedAlert MDT for the apparatus tablet. The full Desktop map runs in the Responder App, so members plot and edit properties, hydrants, points of interest, and incident shapes from their own phones. iOS and Android. EPR describes FireWorks as browser-based and accessible from any device, and offers a separate EPR Fireworks Staffing app for scheduling, communication, and time tracking. RedAlert's native apps cover alerting, field work, and the apparatus tablet, on one roster and one login.

Technology and Integrations

Category RedAlert EPR FireWorks What This Means
CAD Interface One interface that pre-fills the incident report with times, units, address, call type, and dispatcher comments, and simultaneously feeds the alerting app, the apparatus tablet, the station display, and the Kiosk attendance window. Available as a module. Public materials reference native CAD integrations and a published integration with Adashi RollCall. One dispatch feed fills in the report, drives the Responder App, the MDT, and the Station Board, and opens the Kiosk for attendance on that exact call.
Alerting & Response RedAlert Responder: dispatch alerts to every member's phone, one-tap response status, GPS routing, and your own mapping. Responding units and personnel appear on the map with each member's photo and status. Includes Retone, letting a member on scene upgrade a call to a working fire or stand the department down. Public materials reference incident command and response tools within the platform. Retone lets the first member on scene upgrade an automatic alarm to a working fire, or stand the department down on a false alarm, and push it to everyone still en route.
En-Route Data (MDT) RedAlert MDT: the live CAD feed, your hydrants and FDCs, and full preplans with hazards and utility shut-offs on every apparatus tablet. Crews can start the NERIS report from the same screen while still on scene. A dedicated MDT product does not appear in EPR's public solutions list. Its pre-incident planning is marketed with dynamic mapping and real-time updates. The crew understands the building before stepping off the truck, on a mounted screen everyone can see, and the NERIS report starts on the same tablet when the call winds down.
Station Displays RedAlert Station Board turns any TV into a live command board during a call, and shows duty crew, out-of-service rigs, tasks due, and top responders between calls. No comparable station display product appears in EPR's public module list. Between calls, the firehouse screen shows duty crew, out-of-service apparatus, tasks due, and top responders year to date, so it earns its place on the wall all day.

Buyer Experience

Category RedAlert EPR FireWorks What This Means
Company Longevity Alpine Software has built fire department software since 1994 and nothing else. Over 1,000 departments and 200,000 first responders. EPR's own press release states the company was founded in 2016 and serves approximately 500 fire and EMS agencies across 35 states. Three decades of fire department software and nothing else. The depth shows in the parts nobody demos: point program rules, ISO-ready flow tests, and what happens when a truck check fails.
Pricing Model Priced per module. Departments buy the modules they will use and skip the ones they will not. Quotes provided directly. Pricing is not published on EPR's public website. Quotes are provided per agency. A volunteer department running 200 calls a year buys the modules it uses and skips the rest. A unified suite is generally bought as a whole.
Contract Terms Annual contracts. Contract terms are not published publicly. RedAlert runs on annual contracts. Before signing with EPR, request the initial term, renewal terms, and any annual escalator in writing.
Procurement Path Direct purchase, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if your agency requires one. Most departments buy directly. Public procurement records show municipal agencies purchasing EPR directly. Buy directly, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if your agency's process requires one.
Implementation & Onboarding 90 to 120 days typical, with a dedicated, Rochester-based project lead who manages the rollout, migrates your data with nothing lost, configures the system, and runs weekly meetings with your team through go-live. Implementation timelines are not published publicly. One person in Rochester owns your rollout from kickoff to go-live, meets with your team every week, and brings your data over complete, including NFIRS history. White-glove from start to finish.
Best Fit Agency Size Any size, with particular depth for volunteer and combination departments. Publicly markets to fire and EMS agencies broadly, with an emphasis on unified fire and EMS operations. Volunteer and combination departments are where RedAlert specializes: attendance programs, duty crews, and departments running without dedicated administrative staff.
Support Experience U.S.-based support team in Rochester, New York. Phone and email, real people, in the same building as the engineers who build the software. Public materials reference customer support as part of the platform offering. Call Alpine and you reach Rochester, New York: real people, onshore, in the same building as the engineers who build the software.

Built Around Your Department

Custom Fields & Workflows

RedAlert

Table-driven SQL architecture. Departments add dropdowns, checkboxes, and free text fields to any record in the system (incidents, personnel, apparatus, properties, training, and attendance) and set up workflows around how they operate, with Alpine's team building anything more involved.

EPR FireWorks

Public materials describe a unified cloud platform with configurable modules.

What This Means

If your department tracks it, it can be a field, on any record in the system. Your team adjusts fields and forms as your needs change, and Alpine's team in Rochester builds the bigger pieces with you.

Custom Forms

RedAlert

The forms your members fill out are built to your department: truck checks, training records, fire reports, special studies, plus-one codes, property inspection checklists, personnel records, and more, with your own fields.

EPR FireWorks

Publicly markets configurable modules across fire and EMS operations.

What This Means

Your members fill out forms your department designed, not a generic template, and every field they complete is available for reporting.

Reporting & Analytics

RedAlert

Hundreds of built-in reports across every module, plus custom reports built by Alpine's engineering team. Every custom field and form feeds reporting, which is how custom payroll, ISO, OSHA, and point-program reports get built.

EPR FireWorks

Publicly markets analytics and compliance modules.

What This Means

When the report you need does not exist, Alpine's engineering team builds it. Thirty years of department requests are why most of what you need is already there.

Operations

Incident Reporting & NERIS

RedAlert

NERIS Compliant. Incident templates, one-click narrative generation, custom plus-one codes, and a validator that catches errors before submission. Reports can be started from the apparatus tablet, a phone, or a desk.

EPR FireWorks

Publicly markets NERIS compliance and a dedicated NERIS module.

What This Means

RedAlert reports start before anyone sits down: from the rig on scene, from a phone, or at a desk. Templates handle the calls you run every week, and the narrative generates in one click.

Pre-Incident Planning & Mapping

RedAlert

Preplans, properties, hazmat, dispatch warnings, site plans, and contacts can be created and edited in the Responder App on a phone or tablet, as well as in Desktop. Crews plot properties, hydrants, and points of interest onto the map from the field, with day, night, and satellite views and custom layers per user. Parent and child property relationships for malls, campuses, and complex sites.

EPR FireWorks

Public materials indicate pre-incident planning tools with mapping, and reference hydrant locations, Knox box codes, and FDC points delivered to responders.

What This Means

The crew walking the building updates the preplan from a phone while standing in it, and the inspector, the officer, and the responding crew all work from that same record.

Field Mapping & Incident Shapes

RedAlert

Members draw polygons, lines, and circles on the map in the Responder App: a fire perimeter, a road closure, a staging radius. Shapes can be tied to a NERIS incident, styled by color and opacity, and set to expire at a date and time. Responding units and responding personnel appear on the same map.

EPR FireWorks

Public materials reference mapping within pre-incident planning and incident command tools.

What This Means

Draw the perimeter, mark the road closure, or set the staging area from the scene, and every member looking at the map sees it. Shapes expire on their own, so last week's closure is not cluttering this week's map.

Hydrants & Water Supply

RedAlert

Crews view, plot, inspect, and flow test hydrants in the Responder App on a phone or tablet. Enter the full three-outlet flow test and a one-tap calculation returns available flow at 0, 10, and 20 psi, then writes the results back to the hydrant record, including its NFPA class. Out-of-service hydrants show darkened on the responder's map, and primary, secondary, and tertiary hydrants attach to each preplan. Import from CSV, GIS, and shapefiles.

EPR FireWorks

Publicly markets hydrant inspections, flow testing, and GIS mapping as a module.

What This Means

The flow test happens at the hydrant, on a phone, and the math is done for you. An out-of-service hydrant goes dark on the map automatically, every preplan that depended on it is flagged, and flow test curves print in the format ISO reviewers expect.

Fire Prevention & Inspections

RedAlert

iPad inspections with your own occupancy types, permit types, and violation code sets. Permits generated from inspections with automatic renewal letters. Investigations case management with court-ready reports.

EPR FireWorks

Public materials indicate fire prevention and inspection modules, plus a state-level fire prevention suite for fire marshals.

What This Means

Your occupancy types, your permit workflows, and your violation codes, configured to how your jurisdiction actually enforces rather than how a template assumes it does.

Training & Certifications

RedAlert

Course records, certification expiration tracking with advance warning, event scheduling, and verified attendance capture at the Kiosk.

EPR FireWorks

Publicly markets a training and learning management module, described as including course delivery.

What This Means

Expirations are flagged before they lapse, drill attendance comes from verified check-in instead of a sign-in sheet, and training hours feed your point or stipend program automatically.

Assets, Inventory & Maintenance

RedAlert

Four record types with their own fields: general inventory, SCBA testing, hose testing, and apparatus. Location tracking down to the compartment and shelf. QR and barcode scanning from any phone or tablet. Work orders with parts, labor, and vendor cost.

EPR FireWorks

Publicly markets equipment and logistics, inventory, and equipment tracking modules.

What This Means

Truck checks happen in the bay by scanning a QR code with any phone. A failed check opens a work order that tracks the part, the labor, and the vendor cost through to completion.

Attendance, LOSAP & Award Programs

RedAlert

The RedAlert Kiosk: station-mounted biometric check-in by fingerprint, key fob, or ID card, with photo verification and CAD-triggered time windows that lock automatically. Point, stipend, and pay-per-call programs configured to your plan document. Attendance can also be recorded in Desktop or Mobile without the Kiosk.

EPR FireWorks

Publicly markets pay-per-call tracking and volunteer hour and contribution tracking for recognition and incentives within its workforce module. No station-mounted check-in hardware appears in EPR's public materials.

What This Means

Tracking points and verifying attendance are different things. RedAlert's Kiosk requires the member's own fingerprint or credential, at the station, inside a window the call defined, with a photo. If your program distributes public money, that is the record that holds up.

Personnel and Scheduling

Personnel & Roster

RedAlert

One member record driving alerting, station check-in, app access, training, certifications, and response history. Permissions configured to your command structure down to the field level.

EPR FireWorks

Publicly markets workforce management and personnel modules as part of the unified platform.

What This Means

Add a member once and that record drives their alerting, check-ins, app access, and training file. Nobody who left last spring is still getting alerts.

Scheduling

RedAlert

Any repeating rotation, time codes and accrual banks built to your definitions, custom payroll reports formatted for your payroll system, and duty crew shifts measured against actual Kiosk clock-in.

EPR FireWorks

Publicly markets StaffWorks shift management with open-shift bidding, swaps, automated shift filling, and payroll integration.

What This Means

Payroll reports come out in the format your payroll system imports, built around your own time codes and accrual banks. Departments wanting fully automated shift coverage should evaluate that requirement specifically.

Mobile Access

RedAlert

Native applications: RedAlert Mobile for field work, RedAlert Responder for alerting, and RedAlert MDT for the apparatus tablet. The full Desktop map runs in the Responder App, so members plot and edit properties, hydrants, points of interest, and incident shapes from their own phones. iOS and Android.

EPR FireWorks

EPR describes FireWorks as browser-based and accessible from any device, and offers a separate EPR Fireworks Staffing app for scheduling, communication, and time tracking.

What This Means

RedAlert's native apps cover alerting, field work, and the apparatus tablet, on one roster and one login.

Technology and Integrations

CAD Interface

RedAlert

One interface that pre-fills the incident report with times, units, address, call type, and dispatcher comments, and simultaneously feeds the alerting app, the apparatus tablet, the station display, and the Kiosk attendance window. Available as a module.

EPR FireWorks

Public materials reference native CAD integrations and a published integration with Adashi RollCall.

What This Means

One dispatch feed fills in the report, drives the Responder App, the MDT, and the Station Board, and opens the Kiosk for attendance on that exact call.

Alerting & Response

RedAlert

RedAlert Responder: dispatch alerts to every member's phone, one-tap response status, GPS routing, and your own mapping. Responding units and personnel appear on the map with each member's photo and status. Includes Retone, letting a member on scene upgrade a call to a working fire or stand the department down.

EPR FireWorks

Public materials reference incident command and response tools within the platform.

What This Means

Retone lets the first member on scene upgrade an automatic alarm to a working fire, or stand the department down on a false alarm, and push it to everyone still en route.

En-Route Data (MDT)

RedAlert

RedAlert MDT: the live CAD feed, your hydrants and FDCs, and full preplans with hazards and utility shut-offs on every apparatus tablet. Crews can start the NERIS report from the same screen while still on scene.

EPR FireWorks

A dedicated MDT product does not appear in EPR's public solutions list. Its pre-incident planning is marketed with dynamic mapping and real-time updates.

What This Means

The crew understands the building before stepping off the truck, on a mounted screen everyone can see, and the NERIS report starts on the same tablet when the call winds down.

Station Displays

RedAlert

RedAlert Station Board turns any TV into a live command board during a call, and shows duty crew, out-of-service rigs, tasks due, and top responders between calls.

EPR FireWorks

No comparable station display product appears in EPR's public module list.

What This Means

Between calls, the firehouse screen shows duty crew, out-of-service apparatus, tasks due, and top responders year to date, so it earns its place on the wall all day.

Buyer Experience

Company Longevity

RedAlert

Alpine Software has built fire department software since 1994 and nothing else. Over 1,000 departments and 200,000 first responders.

EPR FireWorks

EPR's own press release states the company was founded in 2016 and serves approximately 500 fire and EMS agencies across 35 states.

What This Means

Three decades of fire department software and nothing else. The depth shows in the parts nobody demos: point program rules, ISO-ready flow tests, and what happens when a truck check fails.

Pricing Model

RedAlert

Priced per module. Departments buy the modules they will use and skip the ones they will not. Quotes provided directly.

EPR FireWorks

Pricing is not published on EPR's public website. Quotes are provided per agency.

What This Means

A volunteer department running 200 calls a year buys the modules it uses and skips the rest. A unified suite is generally bought as a whole.

Contract Terms

RedAlert

Annual contracts.

EPR FireWorks

Contract terms are not published publicly.

What This Means

RedAlert runs on annual contracts. Before signing with EPR, request the initial term, renewal terms, and any annual escalator in writing.

Procurement Path

RedAlert

Direct purchase, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if your agency requires one. Most departments buy directly.

EPR FireWorks

Public procurement records show municipal agencies purchasing EPR directly.

What This Means

Buy directly, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if your agency's process requires one.

Implementation & Onboarding

RedAlert

90 to 120 days typical, with a dedicated, Rochester-based project lead who manages the rollout, migrates your data with nothing lost, configures the system, and runs weekly meetings with your team through go-live.

EPR FireWorks

Implementation timelines are not published publicly.

What This Means

One person in Rochester owns your rollout from kickoff to go-live, meets with your team every week, and brings your data over complete, including NFIRS history. White-glove from start to finish.

Best Fit Agency Size

RedAlert

Any size, with particular depth for volunteer and combination departments.

EPR FireWorks

Publicly markets to fire and EMS agencies broadly, with an emphasis on unified fire and EMS operations.

What This Means

Volunteer and combination departments are where RedAlert specializes: attendance programs, duty crews, and departments running without dedicated administrative staff.

Support Experience

RedAlert

U.S.-based support team in Rochester, New York. Phone and email, real people, in the same building as the engineers who build the software.

EPR FireWorks

Public materials reference customer support as part of the platform offering.

What This Means

Call Alpine and you reach Rochester, New York: real people, onshore, in the same building as the engineers who build the software.

This comparison is based on publicly available information including vendor websites, public documentation, and press releases listed in the sources section below. Features, pricing, and packaging may change. We encourage buyers to verify current capabilities directly with each vendor before making a purchasing decision.

See It in Action

  • NERIS Compliant incident reporting with one-click narratives
  • Hydrants, preplans, and incident perimeters plotted in the Responder App in the field
  • Verified attendance that holds up in an audit

Thirty Years of Fire, and Nothing Else

Alpine Software has built software for the fire service since 1994. Not public safety broadly, not EMS with a fire module attached. Fire departments, for three decades.

That shows up in the parts of the product nobody demos: the way a LOSAP program is configured, how a hydrant flow test prints for ISO, what happens to a truck check when it fails. Those details exist because departments asked for them over thirty years, not because a product team guessed.

Built Around Your Department

RedAlert was built to be changed. Your department adds dropdowns, checkboxes, and free text fields to any record in the system: incidents, personnel, apparatus, properties, training, and attendance. Build the forms your members fill out and the workflows your department actually follows, and adjust them as your needs change. When something is more involved, Alpine's team in Rochester builds it with you, during implementation and after.

Every one of those fields flows straight into reporting. That is how departments get payroll reports built around their own time codes, ISO documentation formatted the way their reviewer wants it, point calculations for a LOSAP plan nobody else runs, and their own data points captured on every call report.

Your occupancy types. Your permit workflows. Your violation codes. Your point program rules. Your payroll time codes. Departments differ more than software vendors like to admit, and a system that bends to you is worth more than one you work around.

Custom Reports as Standard Practice

Our rule for thirty years has been simple: if more than one department asked for the same report, we made it standard in the system. What is left over, we build.

That is why the report library is deep, and why "we will build it" is a normal answer here rather than an escalation. When your auditor, your board, or your grant application wants something specific, the answer should not be a feature request ticket.

Real Apps, Not a Browser Window

RedAlert ships three native applications. Mobile for field work, Responder for alerting, and MDT for the apparatus tablet. They run on members' own phones and on mounted tablets in the rig.

A browser tab and an application behave differently in a firehouse. Ask what the apparatus screen shows while the rig is moving, whether a member can complete a truck check standing next to the truck, and whether alerting and the apparatus tablet come from the same system as your records.

Your Map, in Your Hand

The full RedAlert map runs in the Responder App on members' phones and tablets, with day, night, and satellite views and the custom layers each member chooses. Crews plot properties, hydrants, and points of interest from the field, update preplans, hazmat, and site plans while standing in the building, and run a full hydrant flow test at the hydrant, with available flow calculated in one tap.

On scene, members draw what everyone else needs to see: a fire perimeter, a road closure, a staging radius. Shapes can be tied to the NERIS incident and set to expire on their own. Responding units and personnel appear on the same map, and an out-of-service hydrant shows dark so nobody hooks up to it.

Attendance You Can Defend

The RedAlert Kiosk is a station-mounted touchscreen where members check in by fingerprint, key fob, or building ID card. It opens on a CAD trigger when the call comes in and locks automatically after a window your department sets, and it photographs every check-in.

If your department distributes LOSAP points, stipends, or per-call pay, that attendance record is an accounting document. The difference between attendance that is reported and attendance that is proven is the difference between a number your board accepts and a number your board can defend.

The Whole Call, in RedAlert

With the Responder App, the whole call stays in RedAlert: get alerted, respond, and report on the call, without switching systems or vendors. Dispatch drops the call and every member's phone lights up with the address, call type, and details. Members tap responding, command sees who is coming and from where, and turn-by-turn routing puts them on scene.

Retone lets the first member on scene change the call for everyone else. An automatic alarm that turns out to be a working fire gets upgraded to an all-hands alert. A false alarm stands the department down so nobody else drives to a call that does not exist.

Buy the Modules You Need

RedAlert is priced per module. A volunteer department running 200 calls a year can buy incident reporting, alerting, and attendance, and skip the rest.

Unified suites are sold as a whole, which is efficient for an agency that uses the whole thing and expensive for one that does not. Every dollar spent on a module nobody opens is a dollar not spent on equipment, training, or people.

White-Glove Onboarding, From Rochester

Every RedAlert implementation gets a dedicated project lead based in Rochester, New York. They manage the rollout, migrate your data from your prior system with nothing lost, configure RedAlert to how your department operates, and run weekly meetings with your team until you are live, typically in 90 to 120 days.

Switching records systems is the part departments dread most. Having one person who knows your department, your data, and your timeline, sitting down the hall from the engineers who build RedAlert, turns a migration from a project you manage into one that is managed for you.

Onshore Support in Rochester, New York

When you call Alpine, you reach Rochester. Real people, in the United States, in the same building as the engineers who build RedAlert.

This is the single most common reason departments tell us they stay. Support quality is usually the first thing to slip as a software company scales, and the distance between the person answering your call and the person who can fix your problem is what determines whether it gets fixed.

How RedAlert Fits Into Your Software Stack

RedAlert is an all-in-one fire department software platform combining fire RMS, incident reporting and NERIS, alerting and mobile response, pre-incident planning, fire prevention, and attendance and award programs in one database. Many departments comparing RedAlert and EPR are deciding between a unified cloud suite bought as a whole and a modular platform where you select what your department will actually use.

Where many systems treat records management and incident reporting as separate products, RedAlert treats them as one. A completed report is immediately part of the RMS, and the attendance behind it feeds your point or stipend program without a second entry. The property record an inspector updates is the same one your crews see on the apparatus tablet.

Built for the NERIS Transition

NERIS replaced NFIRS as the national fire incident reporting standard in January 2026, and the departments switching software now are usually doing it because their legacy vendor fell behind. RedAlert is NERIS Compliant and Alpine is listed on FSRI's own integration partners page.

NERIS compliance is now the baseline, not the differentiator. The question that matters is how much work the reporting actually takes. Incident templates for the calls you run constantly, one-click narrative generation from call type and actions taken, custom plus-one codes for whatever your county or state wants tracked, and validation that catches errors before submission rather than after the state sends them back. And with RedAlert MDT, the report can be started on the apparatus tablet while the crew is still on scene.

And if your department fell behind during the transition, we convert your NFIRS records rather than making you re-enter them.

When EPR FireWorks May Be the Right Choice

No single platform is right for every department. EPR has built a broad unified fire and EMS platform that serves a real segment of the service. Here are scenarios where EPR may be the stronger fit:

  • You need NEMSIS-compliant ePCR alongside your fire records.

    EPR publicly markets embedded ePCR and patient care reporting linked directly to incident records. RedAlert is a fire records system and does not provide NEMSIS-compliant patient care reporting. Departments that document basic patient information as part of a BLS response can capture it through custom fields on the incident record. If your EMS operation is as significant as your fire operation, that difference matters and EPR addresses it directly.

  • You are consolidating many software categories into one enterprise suite.

    If your strategic goal is reducing the total number of vendors across fire, EMS, community programs, and training delivery, EPR's broad module catalog may support that consolidation. RedAlert is focused on fire operations and does not try to be everything to every agency.

If these scenarios describe your department, evaluate both platforms on their merits. If they do not, RedAlert is likely the more practical choice.

Pricing and Contracts: A Different Philosophy

RedAlert

  • Priced per module, so you buy only what you will use
  • Volunteer and combination departments can start small and add later
  • Everything you add shares the same database and member records
  • A dedicated, Rochester-based project lead for every implementation
  • Annual contracts
  • Direct purchase, or through a cooperative purchasing agreement if required
  • Quotes provided directly by our team in Rochester

EPR FireWorks

  • Pricing is not published publicly
  • Marketed as a unified platform spanning fire and EMS operations
  • Quotes are provided per agency
  • Contract terms are not published publicly
  • Public procurement records show municipal agencies purchasing directly

What this means for buyers

  • With RedAlert, every line on your quote is a module you can decline. A department that will never run inspections does not pay for inspections.
  • Start with what you need now and add later. Every module you add shares the same database and member records from day one, so expanding never means migrating.
  • A unified suite is efficient for an agency that uses all of it. For a volunteer or combination department, it often means paying for modules nobody opens.

Disclaimer: Pricing, fees, and contract terms change over time and vary by vendor, agency size, module selection, and negotiation. The information above reflects publicly available sources and should not be treated as current or universal pricing. Always confirm current pricing and contract terms directly with each vendor during your evaluation.

Is RedAlert cheaper than EPR FireWorks?

It depends on what your department needs, and that is the point. RedAlert is priced per module, which means a smaller department can buy incident reporting, alerting, and attendance tracking without paying for modules it will not use. A unified suite is generally priced as a whole, which means paying for the modules you use and the ones you do not.

Does RedAlert support NERIS?

Yes. RedAlert is NERIS Compliant and Alpine is listed on FSRI's integration partners page. NERIS templates, validation, and submission are part of the platform rather than a separately priced module.

Can RedAlert be customized to our department's forms and workflows?

Yes, and it is one of the main reasons departments choose us. RedAlert was built to be changed: your department adds dropdowns, checkboxes, and free text fields to any record in the system, builds the forms your members fill out (truck checks, training records, fire reports, special studies, plus-one codes, property inspection checklists, and personnel records), and sets up workflows around how you operate. Every field flows into reporting, and when you need something more involved, like a custom report, Alpine's team in Rochester builds it with you.

Does RedAlert do ePCR or patient care reporting?

RedAlert does not provide NEMSIS-compliant patient care reporting. It is a fire records management system, and departments that record basic patient information as part of a BLS response can capture it through custom fields on the incident record. EPR publicly markets embedded patient care reporting linked to incident records. If your agency needs fire and EMS documentation in one system, that is a genuine point in EPR's favor and worth weighing directly.

What is the biggest difference between the two platforms?

Two things. RedAlert ships native mobile applications for alerting, field work, and the apparatus tablet, while EPR describes FireWorks as a browser-based platform accessible from any device, with a separate mobile app for staffing. And RedAlert offers the Kiosk, a station-mounted biometric attendance station with call-triggered check-in windows; no station-mounted check-in hardware appears in EPR's public materials.

Can our crews plot hydrants and update preplans from a phone?

Yes. The full RedAlert map runs in the RedAlert Responder App, so members can plot and edit properties, hydrants, and points of interest from the field, update preplans, hazmat, dispatch warnings, and site plans, and run a complete hydrant flow test with available flow calculated in one tap. Members can also draw polygons, lines, and circles on the map, such as a fire perimeter or a road closure, and tie them to the NERIS incident. Every action is controlled by permissions you set.

How does RedAlert handle LOSAP and pay-per-call tracking?

Attendance can be recorded by an officer in RedAlert Desktop or RedAlert Mobile, or captured at the RedAlert Kiosk, where members check in by fingerprint or key fob inside a time window tied to the actual call. Point caps, category maximums, eligibility rules, and weighting are configured to your plan document. If your program distributes public money, the question that matters is how attendance is verified, not just how it is recorded.

What does RedAlert give my crew on the way to a call?

In the Responder App, every member sees the call details, routing, and your own mapping with hydrants and preplans. On the apparatus tablet, RedAlert MDT shows the live CAD feed alongside full preplan data: hazards, utility shut-offs, site plans, and occupancy information. Out-of-service hydrants are darkened on both, and responding units and personnel appear on the same map, along with any perimeter or road closure drawn by members already on scene.

What is Retone?

Retone lets a member change the status of an active call from the Responder App and push that update to everyone. Arrive at an automatic alarm and find a working fire, and every member's phone gets an all-hands alert. Arrive and find a false alarm, and the department stands down so nobody else responds to nothing.

How long does implementation take, and who runs it?

RedAlert implementations typically run 90 to 120 days. Every one gets a dedicated project lead based in Rochester who manages the rollout, migrates your data from your prior system with nothing lost, configures the system to your department, and runs weekly meetings with your team until you go live. The migration is done by our team, not handed to your officers as a project.

Can RedAlert integrate with our CAD system?

Yes, as a module. The CAD interface pre-fills the incident record with times, units, address, call type, and dispatcher comments, and the same feed drives the alerting app, the apparatus tablet, and the station display, and opens the Kiosk attendance window for that call. EPR publicly references native CAD integrations including a published integration with Adashi RollCall.

How big is each company?

Alpine serves over 1,000 fire departments and more than 200,000 first responders, and has done so since 1994. EPR's own July 2025 announcement states approximately 500 fire and EMS agencies across 35 states since its founding in 2016.

What does support look like with Alpine?

Alpine's support team is in Rochester, New York, in the same building as the engineers who build RedAlert. Phone and email, onshore, real people you can reach directly. When something needs fixing, the person you call can walk down the hall to the engineer who can fix it.

Does EPR have capabilities RedAlert does not?

Yes. EPR publicly markets embedded patient care reporting and a broader enterprise module catalog spanning fire and EMS operations. RedAlert is focused on fire operations. If your agency needs NEMSIS-compliant EMS documentation alongside fire records in one system, EPR addresses that and we do not.

Can we migrate from EPR or another system?

Yes. Alpine's onshore team migrates records from your prior vendor as part of every implementation, including historical NFIRS incident data. Your officers do not retype anything.

We are a volunteer department. Is RedAlert built for us?

Volunteer and combination departments are where Alpine specializes. The attendance and award program tools, the modular pricing, and the support model exist because volunteer departments needed them. RedAlert also serves career departments, but the depth in point tracking, duty crew hours, and station-level attendance comes from the volunteer side of the service.

This comparison uses official vendor pages and public documentation. Product features, packaging, and pricing may change, so confirm current details with each vendor.

Related pages: RedAlert vs. ESO RedAlert vs. First Due RedAlert vs. ImageTrend RedAlert vs. Emergency Networking RedAlert vs. other software The RedAlert platform NERIS Resource Center

You Should Not Have to Buy a Suite to Modernize Your Department

RedAlert gives your department the modules it needs, built by people who have done one thing since 1994, supported by a team you can actually call.

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