GIS at the Seattle Fire Department: New Tools in the Emergency Management Arsenal

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GIS at the Seattle Fire Department New Tools in
the Emergency Management Arsenal

• Peter Di Turi, GIS Analyst
• Thomas Richardson, Battalion Chief

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Presentation Items

• The Force Seattle Fire Operations
• First Shots GIS Emergence
• Big Wave CAD Goes Geospatial
• Latest Tools First Responder Applications
• Next Stages Opportunities for the Future

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The Force Seattle Fire Operations

• The Where
• 84 square-mile land area, the city of Seattle
• 34 fire stations (32 land, 1 water, 1 land/water)
• Medic One facility _at_ Harborview Medical Center
• New Fire Alarm Center (with City EOC)
• New Joint Training Facility
• 5 Operational battalion areas, Medic One
  battalion
• Mutual aid to surrounding King County
  jurisdictions

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Some of our stations
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Our world
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The Force Seattle Fire Operations

• The What
• Fire 32 Engines, 11 Ladder trucks
• EMS 3 Aid Cars, 7 Medic Vans, Cycle Medic
• H2O 2 fireboats (Fresh and Salt)
• Specialty Command Van, HazMat Van, Tech Rescue
  Van, Air Units, Hose Wagons
• Admin Cars 6 BCs, Deputy1, Staff10, Safety,
  Fire Marshal, Command Staff, MIS

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Some common apparatus
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Our specialty units
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The Force Seattle Fire Operations

• Most Importantly, The Who
• 2000 Population 563,400
• Daytime population 1,500,000 (est.)
• Personnel Profile (2007)
• Uniformed 1,030 (all EMT certified)
• On-duty strength 210
• Department Chiefs 36
• Paramedics 81
• Civilian 80

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Presentation Items

• The Force Seattle Fire Operations
• First Shots GIS Emergence
• Big Wave CAD Goes Geospatial
• Latest Tools First Responder Applications
• Next Stages Opportunities for the Future

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First Shots GIS Emergence

• Seattle Fire Early GIS Milestones
• First GIS work 1993 Geocoding for CAD
• First GIS deliverable 1994 - Map Book
• First GIS large map 1995 Battalion 7 Map
• First GIS dataset created 1996 - Areaways
• First GIS application 1997 PreFire
• First GIS business analysis 1999 Deccan

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Sample Map Book page
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Original PreFire program interfacerequiring
ArcView
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Original PreFire program interface MS Access
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Original PreFire program interfaceyes,
PowerPoint
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CAD Data Turnkey Analysis
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First Shots GIS Emergence

• Seattle Fire Early Millennium Milestones
• First GIS analyst hired December, 2000
• First GIS application modified PreFire
• First GIS maps Nisqually Earthquake set
• 2001 Developed map standards for station,
  inspection, thematic and area maps
• 2002 Acquired GIS hardware and software, hired
  intern to support sudden demand

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Nisqually 02/28/01 Quake Just down the sidewalk
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Nisqually 02/28/01 Quake The immediate area map
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Nisqually 02/28/01 Quake Neighborhood
isolation?
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So the requests begin to pour in Standard
Station/ Rig Maps
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Standard Inspection District Maps
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Specific Area Maps
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First Shots GIS Emergence

• First GIS Major Event TOPOFF2 (2003)
• GIS staff reported to Fire Ops instead of MIS
• 36-hour around-the-clock GIS support
• Created small and large-scale maps on-the-fly
• Incorporated NARAC plume-model shapefiles
• Provided data support to City EOC GIS staff

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TOPOFF2 The site
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TOPOFF2 First Map (One Mile Diameter)
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TOPOFF2 Geiger Counter Readings with GPS
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TOPOFF2 Using NARACs GIS data of plume model
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First Shots GIS Emergence

• GIS support is now part of every event/drill
• Map series provided for Resource Management
  Center (RMC) central support
• Detailed/area maps provided as part of Incident
  Action Plans for events and drills
• 2004 GIS client viewer application deployed in
  RMC, Command Van with localized data sets
• GIS staff available for on-site, on-call support

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So one event map
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leads to another event map
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..and leads to another(you get the idea)
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First Shots GIS Emergence

• But, as in TOPOFF2, drawbacks happen
• Make readable maps ASAP in well-sized fonts
• Disconnect between IC needs and GIS products
• GIS expertise really needed at command post
• No runner to help facilitate map/data exchanges
• No digital data provided to IC - just paper maps
• GIS staff overwhelmed by HQ and EOC needs

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Presentation Items

• The Force Seattle Fire Operations
• First Shots GIS Emergence
• Big Wave CAD Goes Geospatial
• Latest Tools First Responder Applications
• Next Stages Opportunities for the Future

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Big Wave CAD Goes Geospatial

• Seattle Fire implements new CAD in November, 2003
• GIS-Specific Impacts
• New mapping interface for Ops and dispatchers
• Live Routing replaces run stream dispatching
• Improved geolocation of common place names
• Two-way data exchange with RMS

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Big Wave CAD Goes Geospatial

• GIS-specific solutions for dispatchers
• Customizable map interface
• Update process provides accurate map data
• Update process provides accurate street network
• Update process improves geovalidation and
  geolocation
• QA process increases accuracy of premises

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CAD Implementation Before - Shapefiles in GIS
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CAD Implementation After Fire Stations,
Incidents, Units, Battalion Areas, Shortest Path
Dispatch, etc.
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CAD Premise QA From Authoritative Inspection
DB.
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CAD Premise QA to RMS QA module for 2nd check
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CAD Premise QA to CAD, where it HAS to be
right
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Big Wave CAD Goes Geospatial

• But, theres still limitations
• Map interface in MDC not maintainable by MIS and
  Fire Ops cant trust it
• Map interface in CAD can be easier to maintain
• CADs geovalidation isnt GIS geovalidation
• Desire to integrate inspection, prefire data for
  wider use
• Additional management desire for reporting from
  MDC
• Pandemic situations
• Disaster management

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Presentation Items

• The Force Seattle Fire Operations
• First Shots GIS Emergence
• Big Wave CAD Goes Geospatial
• Latest Tools First Responder Applications
• Next Stages Opportunities for the Future

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First Responder Applications

• PreFire Data and Drawings
• Pandemic Situation Reporting
• Disaster Incident Reporting

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First Responder Applications

• PreFire Data and Drawings
• New joint Inspection/Prefire Database (IPD)
• Authoritative Source for CAD Premise Data
• Target users are no longer only Battalion Chiefs
• Drawings/data maintained by Fire Ops, not MIS
• MDC application is fairly easy to use

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PreFire Now Maintained WITH Inspections BY Ops
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PreFire Mobile Data Client (MDC) Without
PreFire
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PreFire MDC With PreFire search capability
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PreFire MDC With PreFire Data at a touch
literally
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PreFire MDC With PreFire Drawings at night
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First Responder Applications

• Disaster Incident Reporting
• Piloted for 2007 Earthquake drills
• Ease of reporting in MDC
• Minimal amount of data to collect
• Easy to use
• Keyboard needed only for desired comments
• Lots of quick error checking
• GIS prototype reporting application

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Disaster reporting MDC Event Entry Web
application
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Disaster reporting Event reporting application
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Disaster reporting The GIS view
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First Responder Applications

• Pandemic Situation Found Reporting
• Piloted in early 2007
• Ease of reporting in MDC
• Minimal amount of data to collect
• Easy to use
• Keyboard NOT NEEDED!!!
• Lots of quick error checking
• GIS prototype reporting application

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Pandemic Situation Found MDC Data Selection
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Pandemic Situation Found MDC Data Entry
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Pandemic Situation Found The GIS view
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First Responder Applications

• Better, but still not good enough
• Balancing big visuals vs. big buttons vs. costs
• Having readable, usable, rapidly-acquired data
• Maps need accuracy layers fully displayable
• Best routing capabilities needed
• Prefire entry done by hand instead of PC/PDA
• Need 3-D geolocation of FFs with 1 accuracy
• GIS needs to serve the intelligence cycle
  (monitoring, evaluation, feedback)

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Presentation Items

• The Force Seattle Fire Operations
• First Shots GIS Emergence
• Big Wave CAD Goes Geospatial
• Latest Tools First Responder Applications
• Next Stages Opportunities for the Future

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Opportunities for the Future

• Derivative Products
• PreFire MDC app today ? New integrated
  CAD/PreFire application on MDC tomorrow
• Disaster drill GIS app today ? New ICS-compliant
  application tomorrow
• Situation found GIS app today ? Advanced
  situation found application...TODAY!!!
• Better Communication Methods

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Opportunities for the Future

• Integrated CAD/PreFire application on MDC
• Uses a new CAD mapping interface where the map is
  now easily maintainable
• Simplifies IT application maintenance needs
• The PreFire is called from the CAD view if
  requested and can be better controlled
• Use GIS wider search option to catch exposures

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The new Mobile app A map that can be
maintained!
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Integrated PreFire Button In 1 MDC App Instead of
2
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Opportunities for the Future

• New ICS-compliant disaster application
• Integrate CAD and situational reports (data from
  disaster drill application)
• Uses Standard NIMS-compliant on-line forms for
  unplanned/planned incident management
• Incorporates Virtual Earth and leverages existing
  GIS data investment

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ICS Compliant Application
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ICS Compliant Application with spatial components
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Opportunities for the Future

• New advanced situation found application
• Includes ability to create triggers based upon
• Time period
• Criteria met
• Geographic location or cluster
• Number of occurrences
• Tracking and reporting on continual basis
• Has mapping interface
• Not restricted to EMS incidents

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Pandemic Situation App Tracking The Events
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Pandemic Situation App In Place and Gaining
Ground
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Pandemic Situation App In Place and Gaining
Ground
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Opportunities for the Future

• Communication Makes or Breaks Success
• GIS professionals need access to National
  Geospatial Agency (NGA) resources
• Avoid lack of or wrong communication
• E.g., 2007 California wildfires
• wrong tools were used to assess situations
• limited data was collected
• Information shared with state EOC but not with IC

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Presentation Items

• The Force Seattle Fire Operations
• First Shots GIS Emergence
• Big Wave CAD Goes Geospatial
• Latest Tools First Responder Applications
• Next Stages Opportunities for the Future

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Summary

• Seattle Fire has and will continue to have
  diverse and emergent needs for GIS applications.
• Past success and positive feedback always
  increases the appetite for more and
  higher-quality GIS products.
• Easy data entry and query applications provide
  opportunities for better real-time decisions.
• COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION and GIS truly go
  hand-in-hand-in-hand in emergency management.
• Todays solutions are great tools in our GIS
  arsenal, but they form a continuous need for
  better ones tomorrow.

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Questions? Please ask!

• Peter Di Turi, GIS Analyst, Admin/MIS
• E-mail peter.dituri_at_seattle.gov
• Phone [phone]
• Thomas Richardson, Battalion 4 Chief, Ops A shift
• E-mail thomas.richardson_at_seattle.gov
• Phone [phone]
• Seattle Fire Department Headquarters
• 301 2nd Avenue South
• Seattle, WA 98104-2680 USA