fbpx

West Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services – Simplifying The Pre-planning Process

by | Nov 25, 2020

Simplifying The Pre-Planning Process In A Complex World – West Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services

While Increasing Pre-planning Efficiency & Effectiveness.

West Vancouver, British Columbia (member municipality of Metro Vancouver)
Population: 42,473*
Sq km under department jurisdiction: 87.26 sq km (33.69 sq mi)
*2016 data.

The Issues West Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services Faced

The West Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services (WVFRS) has been creating pre-incident plans for nearly a quarter of a century. The Fire Department previously relied on a combination of paper and PDF plans. Each paper plan was hand delivered to every firehouse in the area, with the corresponding PDFs uploaded to a central server via a desktop work station. The PDFs were stored on a city server that synced with the apparatus MDT’s each morning at 2 AM.

APX Data spoke with WVFRS’s Captain of Fire Prevention – Aaron Clements, to better understand their challenges.

With new and more complicated building projects constantly going up within its jurisdiction, Clements says, continuing its traditional pre-incident planning program simply wasn’t an option.

 

“Imagine there’s a new addition on a building,” Clements says. “In that case, you don’t just have to update your pdf, sync to your server, and then sync to your truck. You also have to go to five fire halls and hand deliver the new printouts. Then you need to destroy the old ones. That became very onerous.”

West-Vancouver-Fire-Pre-Plans

The Solution – Simplifying Pre-incident Planning While Increasing Effectiveness 

Now that the WVFRS uses APX CityScape software for its pre-incident planning, Clements says he’s able to create up to five or six pre-plans in a day. And because of APX’s completely customizable mobile forms, he’s able to create pre-plans that suit the needs of his jurisdiction perfectly.

“On some of these runs, firefighters have less than a minute before they arrive,” he says. “So if a pre-plan is not clear and concise and only exactly what they need, fire crews aren’t going to be interested.”

He says the department was initially attracted to APX because the data is accessible from any device, at any time, and in real-time as pre-incident plans are created. Gone are the days of waiting for the server to sync overnight, and hand delivering paper plans.  

“Fire Prevention Officers have seen incredible improvements in productivity in the areas of pre-planning and inspections. Firefighters have experienced improved access to current and detailed building information, far beyond anything that was possible with legacy pre-planning and inspection methods. All around, adopting APX’s software has been revolutionary for our Department.” Aaron Clements.

Subscribe to APX Data's Blog

Follow APX Data's Fire Fighting Blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

About the author

Jamie Walker

More to read:

Prepare first responders with a pre-plan and smart mobile devices

Prepare first responders with a pre-plan and smart mobile devices

It’s the twenty-first century, and we’re connected through technology more than ever before. Unfortunately, that can’t be said of those who risk their lives every day to do their job.

Ask yourself: Are your first responders leveraging smart and mobile technologies like iPads and iPhones to implement effective pre-plans immediately? Or are they still relying on paper records stored in your filing cabinet?

read more
Survival Apps Every Firefighter Must Have On Their Phone

Survival Apps Every Firefighter Must Have On Their Phone

Being a firefighter is an extremely demanding job requiring split-second decision-making and steel nerves. In order to be prepared for any situation, firefighters need to have the right tools at their disposal. From apps that help with scene management to those that provide weather updates, there is an app out there to help with every aspect of the job. Here are just a few of the must-have apps for firefighters.

read more