Hartford Fire Department: Fighting Fires With Wireless

Jun 2009 , Sponsored by AT&T

Hartford, Conn., encompasses some 18 square miles, approximately 18,000 buildings and a population of 124,000 - all protected by the Hartford Fire Department. Working out of 12 fire houses, the department's 350 members respond to more than 22,000 calls a year in the city and surrounding areas, including providing specialized support statewide for certain emergencies. The Department is one of only two fire departments in all of New England to hold a Class 1 rating, a gauge of the Fire Department's overall fire protection capabilities as evaluated by insurance authorities.

The Department had long recognized that protecting public safety depends just as much on information and decision-making as it does on firefighting equipment and tactics. When responding to an incident, whether an auto accident, residential fire or major industrial fire, the more commanders know about the situation - and the sooner - the more safely and effectively they can decide on a course of action at the scene. Everything from construction of the building and interior floor plan to the contents, location of water hydrants and mains, and access to the site will influence tactics as well as the deployment of firefighters and equipment.

To put more relevant intelligence into firefighters' hands, the Department was the first department in the country to deploy an innovative geographic information system (GIS). Running over the AT&T 3G wireless network, the system allows commanders in the fire vehicles to access global positioning system (GPS)-enabled applications and databases that deliver an array of visual information about the building, its contents and inhabitants, the surroundings, and the location of other responding fire vehicles. Even before arriving at the scene, firefighting teams can make decisions about deploying equipment, attacking the fire and securing the area around the fire. This critical detail allows for a much faster response to emergencies, more effective management of the scene, and improved safety for citizens and firefighters.

Paper Binders to Touchscreens

Of the 37,000 fire departments in the United States, slightly more than 30 - one in 1,000 - have earned a Class 1 Fire Suppression rating from the Insurance Services Office, an industry group providing analyses for property insurance companies. This rating - the highest of 10 - is based on detailed evaluations of a fire department's alarm and reporting systems, the quality of the department's staff and firefighting resources as well as hydrants and water supply. It is a measure of a department's general ability to protect the lives and property of its residents.

The Hartford Fire Department is understandably proud to be one of the two New England departments (the other is in Cambridge, Mass.) to carry a Class 1 rating. Though not among the largest departments, Hartford is one of the oldest in the country, and it's well known for being an exceptionally capable and forward-thinking firefighting organization. Hartford, for example, was an early adopter of a GPS-based automatic vehicle location (AVL) system that allowed dispatchers and commanders to visually track their trucks and apparatus throughout the city on desktop computer displays. Based on the system's success and the burgeoning use of computer imagery elsewhere, former Deputy Chief Eugene Cieri saw the potential in deploying laptops in the fire vehicles to hold critical firefighting information. At the time, Hartford fire trucks carried thick binders packed with fold-out maps of streets, hydrants and water mains; any available building floor plans; along with data sheets detailing chemicals or materials that might be stored in various buildings. It might be far easier to store the data on mobile computers.