Northpinellas: Latest tool to fight blazes: computers

Rugged laptop computers similar to those used in police cruisers will be installed in the city's fire engines. Instead of having to flip through map books and bulky three-ring binders, firefighters will have fast access to detailed city maps and building plans.

"This will drastically change how we do business," Oldsmar fire Chief Scott McGuff said. "It will be one of the first things we have done to get into the 21st century."

The computers will be used to store building preplans, information firefighters use to help them plan an attack on a fire. Preplans can include drawings and blueprints of buildings, who to contact in case of a fire and the location of potential hazards such as propane tanks and electrical connections.

The sooner firefighters can access this information, the safer it is for them, McGuff said.

"If we can put the information at a fingertip instead of in a binder and searching the binder, that's better for firefighters, whoever owns the building and whoever is in it," McGuff said. "There will be benefits that we will enjoy that will allow us to provide faster, better and cheaper services to the citizens."

Oldsmar will use three Panasonic Toughbook 27 computers, which have touch screens, magnesium alloy cases and moisture- and dust-resistant keyboards, making them more sturdy than typical laptops. The city should receive the software needed to run its system, which will cost about $50,000, in June, McGuff said.

Oldsmar will begin testing its system in June and will be the first in Pinellas County to have onboard laptops packed with computerized maps and preplans, McGuff said. Though there has been talk for years about installing such systems in fire engines, only recently have departments across the country turned to onboard laptops.

"It's certainly becoming an emerging trend," said Mary Marshall, publications editor of the Virginia-based International Association of Fire Chiefs, which plans to hold workshops about this topic during its annual conference in August.

The workshops will showcase a laptop system used in Wilson, N.C.

"This is bleeding edge stuff, not just cutting edge," said Wilson Fire Rescue Services Chief Don Oliver. "Information is power, and we will be a lot better prepared if we have that information at our fingertips. It's very revolutionary and it will make us not only very effective but also safer."

The system works like this: Firefighters type an address into the onboard laptop and the computer pulls up a map of the location. From there, firefighters can look at specific information, such as the building's preplan and the location of nearby fire hydrants.

Once the computerized map is created, there can be several layers of information linked to each property.

For example, Oliver plans to use the laptops to identify unsafe, abandoned buildings in his community in North Carolina. That way, when firefighters punch the address into the laptop, they will know that the building is empty and can plan a more defensive attack, instead of "needlessly risking firefighters' lives for an abandoned building," Oliver said.

The system also can be used for fire inspections, aerial maps and maps of the city's sewer system, which can come in handy when hazardous material spills into a storm drain, Oliver said.

"Right now, we have to call people and they have to bring maps and we lay them on the hoods of cars," Oliver said. "The technology is available to make our jobs a whole lot faster and efficient."

Oldsmar has hired Illinois-based Group 1 Resources Inc. to digitize city maps and building preplans. Using a software called Remote Access, the company will organize the information so that it can be accessed and viewed quickly by computer.

The goal of the program is "to save time and provide firefighters with an abundance of information prior to arriving at a scene," said Jeff Roemer, a senior manager at the company."They will know what they are getting into before they get there."

The city also plans to install printers along with the laptops in fire engines so firefighters can print digital pictures of buildings and floor-plan drawings. These will be useful when firefighters are called to a fire during the night and have difficulting seeing the building.

"It will speed up our search-and-rescue process," McGuff said.

The laptops also will make it easier to maintain current information about the buildings in the city. The preplans for 750 businesses in Oldsmar are stored in four three-ring binders that are kept in each fire engine and command vehicle. That means firefighters have to replace binder pages by hand in every vehicle to update the information.

"It's a laborious process," McGuff said.

Other fire departments in Pinellas will be watching Oldsmar and to see how its new system works, said Palm Harbor fire Chief Jim Angle. Palm Harbor also is interested in developing a similar system in its fire engines.

Once Palm Harbor and Oldsmar get their systems running, the two departments can share their information so each would have the other's maps and preplans, Angle said. Palm Harbor applied for but did not receive a state grant this year to help pay for the laptops. Now the department plans to look into other ways of paying for the project.

"I want to do it, one way or another," Angle said.

Once a fire department develops its onboard system, it can be used for numerous other applications other than mapping and pre-plans, said Oliver, who is president of the National Society of the Executive Fire Officers.

"This is just a precursor for expanded possibilities," Oliver said. "This is the greatest thing since we did away with horses and went to gasoline fire engines."

- Staff writer Ed Quioco can be reached at (727) 445-4183.

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