Abstract

Developing a Curriculum for Fire GIS
Track: Fire, Rescue, and EMS
Authors: Steven Pollackov, Peter Hanna

Promoting GIS in the Fire Service is the goal of many people that believe that GIS could be as big a leap in technology as that of the mechanical engine. Promoting GIS was the mission when Chief Greg Collier of Mount Laurel New Jersey approached Steve Pollackov of FDNY and Peter Hanna of BCFD to teach GIS to firefighters. Now after teaching the class for two semesters to firefighters throughout New Jersey, some valuable lessons have been learned. The first semester classes used ESRI Press's Getting to Know ArcGIS and the students had difficulty associating data and the lessons with the Fire Service. The second semester, Pollackov, Hanna and others developed exercises and used local data to teach the students and similar lessons but it was received better when it was associated with Fire Service concepts and activities.