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Chris Rogers

I’m a fire lieutenant with with 31 years of experience and an unusual fascination with maps.  I started my fire service experience as a resident firefighter while going to college for cartography.  I eventually achieved a degree in Cartography with a minor in Computer Science.   However I realized my professional passion was being a firefighter, however I never lost my excitement for cartography.  I became a career firefighter in the Seattle area about 21 years ago.      I suspect my department hired me with the idea that “This is the guy that is going to fix our maps”.   

After starting our GIS program, I took on the department’s pre-incident planning program.  Our department’s preplans were hand drawn and extremely out of date.  My department wished to move into computer-designed diagrams and I sought ways to streamline the process.  At about the same time, my city was developing a good, accurate map with building and parking lot footprints.    Realizing the value of using work that already has been created,  I started using GIS for our pre-incident plans back in 1998.

While working on these projects, firefighters from surrounding departments asked about how I created the maps.   I realized a need to help other departments so I started my own GIS consulting business.  I’ve worked on a range of projects.  This has included everything from meeting with fellow firefighters over a cup of coffee for advice, to starting a GIS program at a department, and improving  a department’s GIS program.

Currently I work as a technical lead for the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS supporting their efforts in map symbol design.  I also work for Intterra as a subject matter expert in pre-incident planning.

Skills

  • GIS based map design
  • Preplan data creation and maintenance using GIS
  • Map based data analysis
  • Developing GIS based computer applications

Education

1990-1996 University of Idaho Moscow, ID

  • Bachelor of Science, Cartography GIS Option
  • Minor in Computer Science

Projects

In addition to my normal GIS projects I have had the pleasure of doing some unique and challenging work

  • Regional Web Portal Leadership Team:  Worked with fire chief’s from surrounding jurisdiction to identify and create a workflow for a regional web portal
  • National Alliance for Public Safety GIS:  I’m the Northwest coordinator for the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS.  Some of the successes includes
    • Managing the NW Fire User’s Group
    • Coordinating the NAPSG booth at the ESRI International User’s Conference
    • Technical Lead for Incident Map Symbology Workgroup
  • Computer Aided Dispatch:  An important component of most newer Computer Aided Dispatch system is a good GIS.  I have worked on several committees including GIS technical committee and map build team

Contact

I’m located in the Seattle Area (Kirkland Washington)
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