Geographic Information Systems have become an essential tool in organizing and analyzing information for better decision-making. They're like real-time encyclopedias that can be invaluable, particularly for public safety agencies. To learn more, earlier this week I attended the 2006 ESRI Homeland Security GIS Summit in Denver.

Keynote speaker and former FEMA Director James Lee Witt related his experience with disasters, along with a call to action. "We need better planning, better training, better focus and better public education," he said. "The most important thing we need is the ability to utilize the technology we have today to better prepare to respond."

Witt also stated a theme that echoed through other conversations I had: "We need to help people to help themselves. Leadership today is more important than ever before. It's stepping up, and making those decisions before we have an event is critical. We cannot be a leader if we're waiting for an event to happen."

The conference was co-located with a health care GIS conference and included a large segment of state health care agencies. The topic of dealing with a pandemic was discussed at length, and Witt compared this impending disaster to the foliage changes from north to south or "waves of death" spreading across the country and around the world.

"Twenty-five million people could be admitted to hospitals," Witt said. "There will be loss of life — friends, families. If we are in a pandemic, people are not going to be able to get into the office, travel, and sporting events will be canceled. How will people manage?"

I also traveled to the IAFC's Strategic Planning Workshop this weekend. Keynote speaker Charlie Dickinson, the acting U.S. fire administrator, emphasized that FEMA's mission isn't response but recovery. "What is the standard for emergency response?" he asked. "When is it that the American people want the bottle of water and bag of ice?" He told the attendees that public safety agencies should support the message that citizens must be able to take care of themselves for 72 hours.

Dickinson also discussed FIRE Grants and the National Incident Management System.

On the fire service uproar over late FIRE Grants: "Fire prevention grants are ready to go, but nobody is pounding on the table to get fire prevention grants out! I feel pretty tough about fire prevention." On NIMS: "We won.... Your departments should be the centers for excellence. Grants and training are going to require that in about two years."

Another presenter, TriData President Phil Schaenman, touched on public education. He met a chief from England who had figured out how to distribute smoke detectors and not have the people remove the batteries. "The chief super-glued 10-year batteries in the smoke detectors before they distributed them," he said. "Smoke detectors should be replaced in 10 years anyway."

Finally, IAFC Executive Director Garry Briese spoke on the future of the fire service. Among his comments, Briese spoke of the upcoming elections and the changes that come about in Congress. "We stand to lose or change several leaders of the Fire Caucus," he said.

Briese also encouraged attendees to go to www.expectmore.gov, which reviews federal programs' performance and describes the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program as "Not Performing."

By the end of next year, Briese said, "we will have received $4 billion. What's changed? Fire deaths have not changed significantly. Firefighter deaths have not changed significantly, nor have fire losses.... We haven't made one impact." Public education, data collection and analysis, and justifying the taxpayers' investment in the FIRE Grants. Think about it.

Janet Wilmoth, Editorial Director
janet@firechief.com