Most municipal governments still use GIS mostly for mapping purposes, but we've been able to make maps for centuries without it. We owe it to ourselves to start using our available technology more comprehensively.

The ability to plan future fire protection for a growing community is made easier with the use of GIS. A strategic GIS view of the community can help define station locations, realign response districts and identify target hazards such as flood plains, as well as locate water supply and high calls-for-service areas.

During a conversation at the National Fire Academy, Chief Ronny Coleman, chairman of the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, suggested to Garry Briese, executive director of the IAFC, a presentation of a typical fire department's journey in the use of GIS for improving fire protection. To develop such a project, a “poster fire department” was needed. After considering the demographics and the fire protection challenges, Wilson (N.C.) Fire/Rescue Services was chosen for the role.

Plotting the course

The city's safety and risk management division joined the fire department's efforts in expanding the use of GIS throughout the organization. The first step was to review our current resources, and we identified seven areas that could be used immediately:

• Public works GIS layers,

• Public utilities GIS layers,

• Development services GIS layers,

• Fire department records management system data,

• 911 center data,

• Public works infrastructure data,

• Public utilities infrastructure data, and

• Safety and risk accident and exposure data.

The challenges faced by Wilson are typical of most older communities today. These include old balloon-frame construction, heavy timber construction, new lightweight construction, abandoned buildings and a high percentage of rental properties. The downtown area consists of local government offices, county courthouse, county jail facility, small shops, hardware stores, service businesses, professional offices and a 7-story banking facility. The core area is attempting to fill a large number of available tenant spaces by offering economic incentives to start-up businesses.

The population of Wilson has grown by 20% over the last 10 years, to just under 50,000. Residential structures range from many 500-square-foot shotgun houses — simple three-room houses, approximately 12 feet wide with six windows, and front and back doors — to 10,000-square-foot mansions. Many of the older large homes are on the National Historic Registry.

Commercial buildings include a total of 3.5 million square feet of warehousing area. These 62 warehouses range from 3,600 to 722,000 square feet and store products ranging from tobacco to cotton, vehicle tires to pharmaceuticals.

Hazardous materials come through the city via interstates and highways. The city also is a crossroads for railroad transportation. CSX and Amtrak share a north-south rail system that runs from Florida to Massachusetts, and Norfolk Southern runs from the Atlantic Coast to the western United States through Wilson.

Wilson Fire/Rescue Services provides fire protection with three shifts of 25 personnel each assigned to five stations. Five engine companies, one truck company and two light squads are staffed with a minimum of 22 personnel. WF/RS responded to 3,147 incidents, of which approximately 45% were EMS calls. We also provide fire inspection services, public education programs, technical rescue and hazmat response.

Once the data were identified, we next had to overcome several internal obstacles. GIS management was decentralized, leading to a lack of communication, coordination and understanding. By bringing all of the involved departments together, we began to overcome these obstacles and improved GIS operations citywide.

Uncharted technology

The department looked to GIS data for quick, visible, up-to-date information on pre-incident surveys, hazmat facilities, dangerous buildings, problem hot spots, repeat calls, arsons, false alarms, water supplies, prevention activities and inspection schedules.

But to use this technology to its full potential, we needed help from some additional outside sources. Along with the CFAI, which offered technical advice on accreditation and certification, this program needed the following ingredients for a successful GIS application:

1. Data. The city's GIS program already had most of it, such as public works information on streets, water lines and hydrants; utilities information on electric systems and gas main locations; development services information on buildings and zoning information; and fire department information on RMS incident reports, demand zones and inspection records. What did not exist already either was created or is in the process of being created by the GIS coordinator.

2. Software. The City of Wilson as a whole had capable GIS software, but additional help came from ESRI, which supplied ArcView gis and training; the Omega Group, which provided the GIS fire analysis application for response analysis, incident analysis and training; and Public Safety Corp., which contributed the in-vehicle mapping response application and training.

3. Hardware. The city also had GIS-capable hardware, but Compaq Computers supplied desktop computers, laptops and handhelds, and Digital Computers Inc. provided ruggedized in-vehicle computers for the gis applications.

4. People. The city's data processing division has personnel proficient in GIS. WF/RS and GIS personnel cooperated to develop these applications.

5. Methods. The only GIS method that existed for the fire department was requesting maps. After assessing possible applications, GIS methods addressing the department's interests were developed by the “GIS people.”

For success, the organization must have all five elements to function in a GIS environment. However, to achieve the optimum potential of a GIS enterprise, an organization must add some imagination and a great deal of motivation. Willing, capable and committed WF/RS team members provided the final ingredients for success.

Implementation roadmap

To demonstrate the benefits of developing a true enterprise approach to GIS in the city, we began with several small projects that brought together the data from multiple departments to identify and/or analyze systemic problems. These small demonstrations quickly turned into much larger real-world solutions that have had a significant impact on the fire department's capabilities and operations. We were able to identify the following areas to implement GIS for risk management.

Inadequate water supply. During the initial training by ESRI and Omega Group staff, an example map was created that identified all hydrants in the city with a flow of less than 500gpm by combining the fire department's hydrant testing data with public services' street and water infrastructure GIS layers. Interestingly, this map was able to paint a picture of systemic problems in several areas.

Though some of this information was known to staff members, it only had been communicated to the water department piece-meal through work orders for individual hydrants. Armed with the GIS map, the fire and risk management departments were able to present upper management with a very clear picture of the nature and extent of the problem.

The results were immediate and very effective. New water mains were installed in several areas, hydrants were updated and a large “loop line” project that had been removed from the budget was reappropriated.

Natural-gas emergencies. Wilson is the natural-gas supplier for the city and surrounding county areas. The city has experienced numerous gas leaks from construction-related breaches of the system. One such breach resulted in a building explosion that also damaged cars and injured passing motorists. City staff was under the general impression that the majority of these incidents were occurring in the northern and western parts of the city, as this is the primary area of growth.

By using ArcView's density mapping feature and combining fire and rescue RMS data with public services' infrastructure GIS layers, we were able to determine that the majority of incidents were occurring in the southern and eastern portions of the city.

This finding was significant because prior prevention efforts had focused on the large contractors that were performing a majority of the work in the western portions of the city. The majority of the work being performed in the eastern portion was primarily small contractors and property owners. Given this information, the city developed a prevention program in conjunction with the local underground coordinating committee.

Hazmat planning and response. The city operates two water treatment plants and one wastewater treatment plant. Large quantities of hazardous materials are stored and used on site at each of the plants. By combining our Tier II hazmat information with the infrastructure GIS layers and the population and demographic information from the planning department, the city was able to more accurately evaluate the risk to the community.

Once the risk was better understood, a cooperative effort between the fire and the water resources departments was undertaken to equip and train a technician-level hazardous response team. The water resources department provided the funding for the team with staffing provided by the fire department.

Natural disaster planning and response. Wilson has endured several large-scale natural disasters in the last decade. For instance, during Hurricane Floyd WF/RS needed to rescue over 300 citizens from the rising flood waters.

Prior to this incident, the planning department had created GIS data layers that depicted the flood zones and adjacent areas that would be prone to flooding during a major event. However, the fire department didn't know that this information was available at the time.

We now have increased communication and cooperation between the departments, and WF/RS now has much more information available to increase its response capabilities and effectiveness.

Vehicle accident mitigation. A final initial implementation project was to create a map that would depict dangerous intersections in the city. A hot spot map was created by combining fire department RMS vehicle accident data with public services street and intersection GIS layers.

The resulting map helped staff identify which intersections experienced the majority of severe accidents. Staff developed and implemented a plan to improve safety at these intersections. These improvements not only reduce the number of severe vehicle accidents, they also reduce the demand on fire department resources.

“I've already seen the difference that spatial analysis has made in the City of Wilson,” says Mark Wells, former Wilson GIS coordinator. “A problem in our water system was easily identified during the fire department's GIS training. After painting a ‘picture,’ the problem was corrected within two weeks. I hope that the fire department's innovative use of GIS spreads throughout the city's enterprise.”

A new direction of response

The ability to plan for future fire protection also has been made easier since the GIS implementation. With the information gathered from the system, we developed a standard of cover to identify the risks and needs for desired fire protection. Such deployment policies were based on risk and community expectations should an emergency occur.

WF/RS chose a comprehensive systems approach to analyzing deployment to thoroughly assess if the department was deployed properly to meet their community's risks and expectations.

The standard of cover process has eight parts:

• Existing deployment. What wf/rs is doing today.

• Community outcome expectations. What is expected of the wf/rs.

• Community risk assessment. What assets are at risk in Wilson?

For example, structure fire risk was assessed on Wilson's building stock. Common fire and life safety factors such as fire flow and code compliance for life safety were used to determine a risk classification. The four classes range from low to moderate, significant and finally maximum risk. Wilson's experience was the same as most communities: a majority of areas identified as moderate or typical risks, mostly composed of dwelling units.

• Distribution study. The location of first-due resources.

• Concentration study. First alarm assignment or effective response force.

• Historical reliability. Is there a multiple-call frequency issue such as call stacking?

• Historical response effectiveness studies. What percent of compliance does the existing system deliver?

• Overall evaluation. Propose standard of cover statements by risk type.

For example, in “90% of all incidents, the first-due unit shall arrive within four minutes travel or six minutes total reflex time. The first-due unit shall be capable of advancing the first line for fire control or starting rescue or providing basic life support for medical incidents.

“That in a moderate risk area, an initial effective response force shall arrive within eight minutes travel or 10 minutes total reflex time, 90% of the time and be able to provide 1,500gpm for firefighting, or be able to handle a five-patient emergency medical incident.”

To assist in achieving standardized risk identification, the CFAI had a committee, in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration, develop a software program to evaluate and score building risk. This program is called RHAVE, or Risk Hazard and Value Evaluation. It was developed in a common database program and will be available free of charge from the fire administration. [Ed: See “The taxonomy of fire,” February 1998.]

Departments can use it to collect data from existing city sources or from field surveys, and with GIS, generate maps that accurately display risk in a community. Other commonly available tools are used to determine community EMS risk or wildland-interface zone risk.

Over the past 35 years I have witnessed an untold number of advances in the fire service. Without question, the application of technology coupled with information management is, to me, the most exciting advancement yet.

“It's refreshing to see gis being used as I envisioned it,” says Wells. “We're not just making maps; we're making a difference.”

An update of “Mapping the Future of Fire” is in the planning stages for Fire-Rescue International 2002, Aug. 23-26, in Kansas City.

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Don Oliver became the fire chief for Wilson (N.C.) Fire/Rescue Services in 1992. He began his career with the Wichita (Kan.) Fire Department in 1967. He was also fire chief in Thornton, Colo. Oliver is the president of the National Society of Executive Fire Officers and a member of the Board of Visitors at the National Fire Academy.