2025 Proceedings

A rural Volunteer Fire Department, reliant on paper maps, wanted to improve services with GIS technology through a partnership with Esri & Fresno County. This collaboration enhances the delivery of emergency services & benefits multiple stakeholders: Cal Fire, Sheriff, EMS, and the U.S. Forest Service. This joint effort addresses the critical geographical & location challenges currently faced. With improved technology, the department created authoritative GIS layers including building footprints, hydrants, hazardous materials, and key points of interest. Additional plans to expand efforts with road data collection & routing optimization to enhance emergency response capabilities.

Following a $52M public safety bond, the Roswell Fire Dept. utilized GIS modeling to evaluate fire station placement and the impact of citywide traffic preemption. This approach integrated a novel road network dataset based on realistic fire apparatus travel behavior, creating outputs that were accurate to within seconds when compared to historical performance. Using this model along with an assessment of community risks, historical demand, and upcoming economic development, a fire station placement strategy was set to guide the capital investments for the next 10-15 years.

Until 2017, the Philadelphia Fire Department used typewriters for many of their data collection workflows. Thanks to Esri’s product suite, PFD can make data driven decisions which serve to both increase efficiency in administrative operations and ensure that residents in Philadelphia are properly protected. Using applications such as Survey123, Operations Dashboard, and Experience Builder, PFD GIS has constructed solutions to expedite smoke alarm installation requests, and evaluate EMS cadets to make certain they have the proper skillset needed to succeed in the field.