From the Mercury News: A new plan to cluster firefighters closer to hot spots in San Jose, Calif., will empty a few lesser-used fire stations as soon as August.

The San Jose Fire Department plans to begin using “dynamic deployment,” a system that makes firefighters more mobile between stations and uses real-time data to help dispatchers spread firefighters more systematically. If firefighters from several San Jose stations are called to a big fire, for example, a dispatcher will be able to pull up historical call volumes of the short-staffed stations and decide whether to refill them.

Aligned with $12 million in cuts to fire department's budget, the plan would add a dispatcher and clear out firefighters from several stations that receive fewer calls. Those firehouses would be made temporary "posting" stations.