The fire service is turning to an old tool with a new futuristic twist — the map. Computer mapping, mobile technologies and linked databases are helping both firefighters and incident commanders use information as a precious resource that can be the tipping point for more safe, secure, and effective response. Geographic information system software, including powerful servers that send applications anywhere in an organization, are supplying firefighters with instant access to information and analysis tools. This helps agencies make precise decisions more quickly.

Agencies are building large data warehouses with preplan information — much of it transferred from paper files and maps — combined with historical incident data and dynamic data such as weather and remote sensing. By building an enterprise capability, staff in all areas of the organization are becoming technology beneficiaries without any cumbersome or laborious training.

One such agency is the Orange County (Calif.) Fire Authority. The agency's first foray into computer mapping dates back to the 1990s, when desktop software packages helped automate production of paper maps of service areas, streets, buildings and fire apparatus. The desktop software helped replace simple paper maps that hung on fire station walls with push pins representing fires and other incidents.

As computer mapping moved into easier-to-use, less expensive and more powerful applications, the agency began to outline a new vision. Using a spatially enabled enterprise consisting of fully integrated Web, server, desktop and mobile solutions, OCFA supplies an integration platform that seamlessly fuses data, applications, processes and previously isolated departments into a synergistic whole. The server capability provides the centralized digital nervous system.

"OCFA is an organization that uses large amounts of location-based information," says Joe Mangiameli, GIS manager, Orange County Fire Authority. "Spatial data is central to most services performed at OCFA and a commodity with which many OCFA business needs are met. Our vision involved streamlining, standardizing and centralizing GIS so we could ultimately make spatial data and applications available throughout the organization."

Develop a strategic GIS plan

OCFA maintains a staff of 841 career and 390 reserve firefighters who work out of 61 fire stations. Six divisions and eight battalions serve 22 cities and county unincorporated areas. It maintains a service area covering 550 square miles, 120,000 acres of wildland, and a population of more than 1.3 million. Its center of operations, the Regional Fire Operations and Training Center, consists of a 20-acre complex with state-of-the-art buildings such as a 911 emergency communications center, a public services and support center, a vehicle maintenance center, a material management center, and training grounds with a fire-simulation tower.

"Service to our community drives everything we do," says Katherine Litchfield, OCFA's information-technology manager. "We develop technology for strategic and tactical purposes by considering what our fire personnel need to get the job done and how we can best serve the public. Our mission is to protect life and property. GIS helps us carry out this mandate."

Fires, medical aids, rescues, hazmat incidents, wildland fires, and aircraft fire and rescue services to John Wayne Airport are just some of the duties of the OCFA operations department. It's also responsible for specialized emergency-response capability and equipment for urban search and rescue and swiftwater rescue, the reserve firefighter program, an emergency-command dispatch center, special operations such as helicopters, and emergency planning and coordination, EMS, and training and safety sections.

OCFA has worked with computer mapping software and increased its expertise in managing spatial data and desktop applications. With the increased use of spatial data throughout the organization, OCFA achieved tactical success for meeting basic mapping needs. Yet as mapping use increased, the organization recognized the need for a more comprehensive strategic GIS plan.

"We had an environment that consisted of limited GIS functionality; multiple platforms; no documented GIS governance, processes, or protocols; and no GIS standards," says Mangiameli. "There were also disparate spatial datasets and workflows, redundant layers of spatial information, and no central management of GIS technology. In addition to this situation, many of the mapping products used throughout the organization were produced in a legacy system that had limited information and inaccurate spatial data."

Based on the organization's GIS vision, OCFA produced a master plan for technology that included an enterprise GIS strategic plan. The blueprint was in place for fully fusing digital mapping into the organization's core information system architecture.