Amherst Fire Gets New iPads For Enhanced Response

Later this month the Amherst Fire Department (AFD) will begin beta testing a state of the art emergency response application thanks to support from Amherst Wal-Mart and Store Manager Tony Tiner.

Wal-Mart donated two Apple iPads that will allow Amherst Fire officials to test and utilize FireTab, a mobile application that provides incident response information.

Zco Corporation of Hudson developed the software and AFD will be providing Zco with valuable feedback in actual field use.  In exchange for providing this feedback, AFD will benefit from being able to use the application on emergency calls.

FireTab will assist Amherst Fire by providing call information such as the address and type of call instantly on the iPad. With a touch of a finger the call location can be viewed and responders can quickly and easily get directions using Apple Maps. The maps, specially annotated for the fire service, will show fire hydrant locations and water source information including how much water is available from the hydrant.

Amherst Fire Department will be working with Zco to expand this application to include pre-fire plans that will be designed for easy access from the map on the iPad. 

Pre-plans have been used by the fire service for many years and provide vital information about key facilities in the community prior to an emergency incident so that fire personnel can respond more efficiently and effectively. The pre-plan database will include critical information about large buildings that pose significant firefighting challenges such as those that store hazardous materials and have the potential of endangering large numbers of people.

Other information typically provided in pre-plans includes the building construction and the location of key features like boilers, sprinkler connections, alarm panels, and access points.    

The FireTab application will allow responders to quickly access this vital information providing visuals at the touch of a finger. It will also afford fire personnel the ability to gather the information in the field to create or update pre-plans and build a library of pictures identifying features and access points to the building.    

"Zco is known for being one of the world's largest developers of custom mobile applications and we are excited to be working with them on the continued development of this important tool," says Amherst Fire Chief Mark Boynton. "We are also very grateful for the donation of laptops from our friends at Wal-Mart to allow us to launch this program."