
(Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News)
“Everybody off the roof! Mayday! Mayday! All companies out of the building!”
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Why were they facing such danger to begin with?
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Was there possible information missing that could have helped protect all firefighters and the public that were involved?
The good news, the Fire Chief publicly announced that the Mayday call prevented the emergency from getting a lot worse, and of course nobody wants to speculate on what that means. Bottom line, firefighting and ensuring the support of its Fire Department is a demanding requirement for any city. When firefighters go to work risking their lives to protect others, their own risk must be mitigated.
Fire prevention works and completing inspections and pre-plans drive compliance and compliance prevents incidents.
You’re well aware of fire standards, but in this case this warehouse had two fires within 4 years causing millions of dollars of damages. Somehow, somewhere, something may have been missed during the annual inspection cycle, or worse, the Fire Department was unable to keep up with today’s growing demand — how many more Fire Departments are in the same position as Los Angeles? How many more proof points are required before a Chief says “enough is enough it’s time to change.”

Many Fire Departments already have the ability to complete 100% of their inspections and pre-plans without having to resort to adding more resources, and use their current firefighters to ensure they are fully compliant with ISO and other standards.
Now, Los Angeles City Fire has an advanced fire prevention software program. But day in and out, we read about fire departments and hear the same thing “…we are way behind in our inspections and pre-plans.” It sounds like they believe they’re alone, newsflash, they’re not. There are 1000s of Fire Departments being reminded by ISO during audits. Yet, everyone is too busy to stop, think, and change this. We all know the leader’s intent of the Fire Chief is to minimize cost while maximizing the safety of their crew and public, this is where the right fire prevention software, tailored to your Fire Department, will have direct impact on their intention.
Fire prevention programs have proven to help reduce fires, however, today’s fire losses are exponentially more costly than in previous years, including injuries. The warehouse fire that took place in Los Angeles, California on May 16th, 2020, is a grave reminder of the potential implications of not having an up-to-date fire pre-plan or inspection. It’s time for firefighters and their departments’ to regroup and rethink.
Let me say this, that is the direction we are heading. Many Fire Departments already have the ability to complete 100% of their inspections and pre-plans without having to resort to adding more resources, and use their current firefighters to ensure they are fully compliant with ISO and other standards. It’s really that simple, and you can too, just take us up on it.
Today’s smart mobile technology gives instant access (taking less than 2 seconds) to digital building records and data, all on the mobile device already in your hand. Smart, mobile technology is affordable for every fire department, easy to implement and drastically decreases the time it takes to produce a complete and comprehensive fire pre-plan and inspection.
Having better information during emergencies makes communities safer and saves lives.
About the author: Paul Martin is the founder of www.apxdata.com – first to introduce smart mobile capabilities to Fire Departments meeting ISO, NFPA, FUS & State requirements.