The Fire Zone includes thousands of pre-drawn symbols that make drawing pre-incident plans fast and easy.
We all know that having detailed, informative, pre-incident plans can save property and even lives. A good pre-plan has the information needed by the Incident Commander to make life or death decisions at the scene. At a major incident, there are so many questions to be answered regarding building composition, utility shut-offs, FDC’s, and hazardous materials. You should be able to get answers in seconds from your pre-plan and site diagram.
So, we agree that we need better pre-plans, but how can we get them? It’s too expensive to hire someone to create your pre-plans, you probably are struggling budget-wise to hold on to the personnel you have now. Besides, wouldn’t it be best if Fire Fighters created the preplans so they could become familiar with the sites and hazards they might have to face?
Now all Fire Fighters can create detailed, electronic pre-incident plans like this one with The Fire Zone drawing software! The Fire Zone is easy to learn and use because it was designed only to be used by Fire Fighters. You can find your diagrams instantly when you use First Look Pro on your mobile computers to complete all of your pre-fire plans with diagrams, photographs, and information about the structure, hydrants, hazardous materials, and more.
On a recent fire call, Chief Bill McQuatters of the Arlington, Texas, Fire Department realized they needed to have more preplans of his jurisdiction’s structures available at the scene. On this call, Chief McQuatters and his crew arrived on scene at an L-shaped building that was three stories high. “The building was really big,” recalls the Chief. “We used to keep a book with all of our preplans. We opened it up and this building wasn’t in there,” Chief McQuatters said. “I was flying blind. I was very vocal about that.”
When the Chief was promoted, he and his assistant chief decided to make automating pre-plans a high priority. Chief McQuatters researched pre-planning software packages and talked to other departments about what software they used. He kept hearing about The Fire Zone, and that is the program he ultimately chose. Arlington FD uses The Fire Zone to create and maintain all of their electronic, pre-incident plan, diagrams today.
Pre-fire Plans Shared Between Stations
McQuatters is chief of one of three battalions that cover the 17 stations of the Arlington Fire Department. His battalion oversees five of these stations. “We’re decentralized,” the Chief explains. “Every station is responsible for creating preplans for its own district. And they’re all learning Fire Zone because we’re getting away from hardcopy preplans.” Chief McQuatters said.
Like so many fire agencies, the Rockford, Illinois, Fire Department has limited dollars to spend on pre-fire planning, so they need the process to be fast and effective. Rockford has hundreds of high-hazard occupancies and maintaining all those plans is a huge process. Today, due to the effort of the department’s own firefighters, and with help from The CAD Zone’s Fire Zone and First Look Pro (FLP) software programs, more preplans are being created and updated faster than at any other time in the fire department’s history.
A Rockford firefighter creates an electronic pre-fire plan diagram using The Fire Zone software. Fire Zone is ideal for creating and maintaining pre-fire diagrams, so it is easy for firefighters to learn and use.
Rockford FD realized the value of pre-planning, so they acquired The Fire Zone and First Look Pro, pre-fire planning software, in the late 1990s. They had the right tools, but where would they get the labor to develop and maintain effective pre-incident plans? Like most departments, they did not have the budget to hire expensive consultants to create their plans. They turned to the people who would benefit the most from having accurate, detailed plans – their own firefighters.
Jeff Cowles, a Rockford FD fire inspector, explains that Rockford FD’s firefighters were motivated to create their pre-fire plans “because they know they’re gathering critical data, and it’s going to be accurate. Now, our firefighters know where they can attack a fire, where their resources are, and where to look for hazards,” Cowles said. Continuing, he said the software is making fire call response “safer for personnel and for those in the building. It makes us more focused.”