The U.S. Fire Administration is distributing a free CD-ROM-based tutorial to help fire departments implement a geographic information system and its applications for displaying their data reported to the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

The NFIRS/GIS Introduction and Tutorial  (FA-259) introduces GIS technologies for the fire service and offers links to more advanced information and key resources, including the United States National Grid - North American Datum 1983 (USNG-NAD83) standard, the single consensus “location interoperability” reference standard required nationwide to make location-based technologies, such as Global Positioning Systems and GIS, effective and useful in terms of equipment, plans, communications protocols, and disaster operations.

GIS is rapidly becoming the tool of choice for analysis and display of fire departments’ activities reported via NFIRS then related to the geographic areas and populations they protect. "The NFIRS data standard, used by fire departments around the nation for many years, also is a great advantage when it comes to interoperable computer-based technologies being able to use fire incident data to fight fire with facts. Because there is a stable and long-standing data content standard in place, NFIRS, GIS applications developed by one vendor or fire department can easily be used by and/or shared with others," according to the USFA.

Also included in on the CD-ROM, courtesy of American Heat of  Primedia Workplace Learning, is a video viewable on a PC with a media player called “Mapping the Future of Fire.” The video shows real-world fire department uses for GIS -- from the apparatus to the chief's office -- implemented from scratch for Wilson ( N.C.) Fire Rescue Services. 

For a free copy of the NFIRS/GIS tutorial, visit the USFA publications center at www.usfa.fema.gov/applications/publications. For more information on GIS, visit www.gisday.com.

See Related Story: GIS: Why We Need Smarter Maps

(Editor's Note: See the December 2003 issue of FIRE CHIEF for an update from Chief Don Oliver of Wilson Fire-Rescue on how the department applied GIS to prepare for and respond to Hurricane Isabel in September 2003.)