One of the things that is often lacking in preplans is identifying safety hazards. There are ways to show hazards to both firefighters and civilians on the preplan diagram. A proposal for showing safety hazards is to use a consistent symbol on the diagram. There are several commonly recognized symbols including There are several option to symbolize something that may…..
One challenges that firefighter sometimes face is identifying which fire department connection is available. In many cases fire department connections may be buried in bushes, mislabeled, or in disrepair. Another challenge may also telling apart which FDC is a standpipe connection or sprinkler connection. There are instances where the brass is even mislabeled.� One great way of identifying the difference…..
Introduction Architects and Engineers are a valuable asset in helping fire departments gather information about building systems, hazards present, and access information. It is also an excellent opportunity to build good relationship with the fire department. Important information can be collected from the building developer. This information includes Access information Doors Windows Roof, attic, and crawl space access Alarms Panels…..
One way to streamline the work required to create preplans is to set up a work flow. Ask yourself this question. “Do I need a floor plan for a fast food restaurant?” So to streamline the amount of work we came up with 3 main levels of preplans and then a catch all fourth level: � Level 1 (Quick…..
One clever ways view information about an occupancy is to have all of you information in one location. We saw this in Tumwater, Washington where all of the “critical information” was available in one spot for responding fire companies. There was location outside the collapse zone (I’m not sure if that was intended but it was) with all of the…..
A lot of our ideas for this subject are derived from the Surrey BC Fire Department The span of control for command is 3-7 people with an optimum of five. The same can be said as well about information. When a company officer is looking or scanning a preplan for information, both en route and on scene, it is difficult…..
With the advent of GPS and other locating devices, firefighters have taken an active roll in mapping information. However when the data is collected it tends to come in a variety of “inconsistent” forms. While it is great that firefighter take the initiative to collect information using a GPS, often is the case where that information is pretty much useless. …..
There are a few scripts that can be downloaded from the ArcScripts website that create KML files that can be read in Google Earth and eventually ArcExplorer-ArcGIS. SketchUp is a 3d graphics program that can import building footprint information and then export into a Geodatabase or a KML file. With SketchUp you can modify the look of the building and…..
