Fire GIS and The Large City: Worcester's Fire GIS Mobile System

Author: Hugo Cardenas
Organization: City of Worcester

418 Main Street, Suite 400
Worcester, MA 01608-1885
USA

Phone: 508-799-1400
Cardenash@ci.worcester.ma.us

Fire departments across the United States are discovering a great deal of support from Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Fire departments are using GIS to improve their response time when responding to a fire incident; the response time is improved my mapping the shortest routes to the fire, considering the least impedances. The GIS need does not end with the shortest path layout; Firemen still need the use of GIS to find closest hydrants, locate vulnerable centers in the area, and determine population estimates. Providing Firemen with geographic information at every fire incident is not an easy task. Firstly, it is very unlikely to find network connections to data servers where fire incidents occur. Secondly, the amount of information needed might reside in many City departments or agencies, taking a great deal of retrieval effort.

Fire GIS Mobile Systems offer a significant advantage in accessing geographic information on-site. Firemen can access and navigate through large databases with a 'touch' on the screen. Vital information is retrieved by sophisticated applications running on modern laptop computers. At the site, Firemen retrieve information on daycare, health centers, nursing homes, schools, warehouses locations, as well as vital Assessor's information.

Fire prevention has also benefited from Fire GIS Mobile Systems. Fire inspectors can display on-site the most recent Fire inspections and correlate these with Police records on Arson. Fire inspectors can display Arson fires in a given time span on-site; they can enter 'live' data while being in the field. GIS has proven to be a valuable asset in suppressing and preventing fires in Worcester.