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FIREHOUSE Software is a fire and EMS records management system. It uses an integrated database and graphical user interface so data is entered one time. Modules for the system are available for: 1) stand-alone workstations and local area networks; 2) wide area networks and departments requiring remote access to a central database; and 3) for remote, wireless access to a central database and easy access from anywhere using a Web browser.

The most widely used module is FH Mobile, a suite of applications designed for mobile computers installed in responding vehicles for use in the field. Trotter notes that FH Mobile is gaining interest among police departments. And, Trotter adds, “Now, we're actually having CAD (computer-aided dispatch) companies come back to us and wanting to provide it through their MDTs (mobile data terminals) to law enforcement, fire and EMS.”

SOFTWARE HELPS CONTAIN INCIDENT AT SCHOOL

Gert Zoutendijk, deputy fire marshal for the Lake Oswego (Oregon) Fire Department, has seen firsthand how beneficial pre-incident planning software can be for responding to large-scale incidents.

Recently, the department was called to a local school where three adults and 42 children were sent to six different hospitals after becoming ill from inhaling fumes of lacquer spray paint used in a room with an open ceiling. The heavy paint odor stayed close to the ground, which triggered the illness.

“It was a full alarm,” Zoutendijk says of the incident. “We had two different incidents at the same place — a hazardous materials incident and a medical incident.”

Lake Oswego Fire Department uses the FIREHOUSE Mobile Preplan software to provide pre-incident plan information on primary buildings and schools. Because firefighters had a pre-fire plan for the school, along with the police department and the Lake Oswego 9-1-1 dispatch center, they all could see the same information and communicate with each other as to the best team approach for containing the paint odor within school buildings.

Once arriving at the school, the FIREHOUSE Software Mobile Preplan aided responders with information on the location of the paint so that a hazmat team could contain it, and where medics should be positioned to receive and treat the students.

LAW ENFORCEMENT: PRE-INCIDENT PLANS VALUABLE

A developing trend within interoperable public safety circles is that police departments are seeing major advantages in using the same pre-incident planning software used by fire agencies. Such is the case with the Holland, Michigan Police Department.

“There's definite advantages to a police department having this software, especially when it can run with other programs,” says the department's captain, Jack Dykstra.

The Holland Police Department used a trial version of the CAD Zone's First Look Pro software to view pre-incident plans of the city's primary buildings. The Holland Fire Department introduced FLP to Dykstra. Fire officials adopted the software after Dykstra observed a successful test whereby the Ottawa County dispatch center, which dispatches calls for both Holland's fire and police, sent a trial call to the fire department and the software's key features kicked into action.

The software accepts all types of attached files to pre-incident plan records, handles a large database of records quickly, works with many dispatch systems and synchronizes all computers using the software with the latest updated data on pre-incident plans.

“I was impressed with the software,” Dykstra says, “and also with the mobile mapping component plus the site information and all-hazards alert feature. The information comes down in layers, and what I liked about that is the closer you get, the more detailed the information becomes.”

The Holland Police Department likely will deploy the software in all 20 of its patrol cars once an upgrade of mobile data terminals is completed by summer of 2009.

What Dykstra says he values most is the information that FLP pre-incident plans can provide, such as building entries and exits, overall floorplan and, especially, the presence of hazardous materials.

Says the captain: “If we take the time to go back and look at the information [in the pre-incident plan], we can avoid dangerous situations.”

Dykstra plans to recommend the pre-incident planning software to Ottawa County and to all law enforcement agencies within it. He also plans to seek regional Homeland Security Department funding for states since a portion of it can be used for interoperability implementation.

NATIONAL INTEROPERABLE NETWORK URGED

To attain true interoperability, Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Communications & Technology Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), argues a wireless broadband network — on a local level, but preferably on a national scale — is the solution. McEwen said that such a national network would eliminate fragmented communications among agencies and help allow jurisdictions in multiple counties or a region achieve better joint response to incidents through quicker shared information.

“We're looking at the national level for federal funding so that the local level has the resources it needs to implement public safety networks,” says McEwen.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) also is weighing in on the value of interoperability. It has created an NFPA Technology Committee on Data Exchange, which will address how information among fire departments and associated first responder agencies is displayed, gathered and shared.

‘DISSOLVE JURISDICTIONAL LINES’

Jim Smalley, NFPA staff liaison for the committee, feels there first must be emphasis on “operability” versus interoperability. “We have to be able to operate at an emergency scene with everyone who needs to be responding to that emergency,” Smalley says.

Smalley fears even this effort can be hampered by varying pieces of data in various formats being pushed out to responders from different sources and through incompatible technology. However, information sharing is becoming more streamlined thanks to the types of software profiled in this article.

Even with such software or other similar solutions in place, Smalley cautions that there needs to be filters in the distribution of data so that each public safety agency gets information relevant to its expertise and responsibilities. Meanwhile, says Smalley, “You still have to know what kind of essential data you want to put in [for interoperability to function seamlessly].”

Smalley adds that “interoperability has to be way better than it is,” noting that uniformity and consistency are key elements.

In many public safety communities, information sharing is the best they can accomplish in the current strained U.S. economy until full interoperability is achieved.

Whichever of these two levels is in place, says Smalley, “Jurisdictional lines have to basically dissolve. We shouldn't worry about who is going to respond when it's a public safety issue.”

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Bob Galvin is a Portland, Ore., freelance writer who writes on topics dealing with interoperability and associated technology. He can be reached at rsgpr@msn.com.

GRANT FUNDS ARE OUT THERE

Whether your public safety effort is local or a regional interoperable system, don't feel as though you must fund it alone. Various funding sources are available. Some of these include:

Public Safety Interoperable Communications Grant Program.

Department of Homeland Security. When visiting this site, click on the “Local Resources” category, then click again on “State Homeland Security Grants.”

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance.

The Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program.