Where There's Smoke, There's Fire… But Is There a Fire Station?

By Joseph A. Masington

When a structure fire occurs, minutes count. Without intervention, a fire can intensify rapidly, and the risk of increased property damage and danger to people can unfold in dramatic fashion. In an uncontrolled environment, rapid fire progression can lead to a dangerous condition known as flash­over — when all contents of a room become fully engulfed in flames. In such a fire, temperatures can climb to nearly 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit— a point at which the area becomes untenable for humans. Hence, immediate fire station deployment to thwart flash­over is a key factor in a community's fire-protection resource plan — to minimize the risk to occupants, property, and firefighters. 

To help quantify the effectiveness of existing fire department deployment, ISO uses advanced analytic techniques based on geographic information system (GIS) technology, replacing a previous paper-based process. The enhanced analysis is employed within ISO's Public Protection Classification (PPCTM) evaluation.

The process of fire response starts with prompt notification to the fire department, usually by means of an installed central fire alarm system or a 911 emergency call, followed by dispatch of the responding fire department. The next most important factor is the distance of the blaze from the actual responders. The optimal scenario involves a nearby fire department arriving promptly with adequate staff and equipment with quick access to a water source of sufficient pressure and volume. If the resources are too far away, the likelihood of damage rises as well as the potential for injury or death to building occupants.

There are many examples around the country that do not support efficient and effective fire protection. A responding fire station is not always the station nearest to the area it is designated to protect. One reason can be outdated service boundaries. And in communities that have been developed more recently, new construction due to fast growth may have raced ahead of the ability to incorporate fire stations, leaving some areas poorly protected.

ISO uses GIS software to conduct detailed fire station deployment analysis — customized to each specific community under evaluation. The software is used to create optimal fire apparatus response polygon areas for each recognized fire station in a fire district compared with the actual distribution. Within the polygons, the number of water supply points is tabulated and recorded. Proprietary calculations and related analysis regarding the distribution study are calculated and used in the community fire defense evaluation. Those results then provide the appropriate point credit for PPC purposes.

GIS technology has cost-effectively streamlined the distribution study portion of the community survey process by replacing paper-oriented tasks and calculations. As a result, the process can now be performed within a fraction of the time, bringing greater accuracy and efficiencies to community surveys.

Joseph A. Masington is an assistant vice president in ISO's Risk Decision Services (RDS) business unit.