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Map Packs
I am about to embark on creating map packs for my department. Its a 42 square mile district with not many roads. I was curious what new ideas are out there to get the most out of the pack, and also how are some ways to go about doing so; like obtaining detailed maps, road names, and such. Any ideas will be useful.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sparky3317 on
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When I did my personal map pack for my old department they way I laid it out was I wrote the street name and the running route we would take from the department to get there. Also make side notes of hydrant locations and any other pertinent information one way street which way the house numbers go and what types of houses etc. This will ensure the officer has as much information as possible when going to a call. For detailed maps I suggest google maps or mapquest. Also if you get a map of the town you can have each street or even sections of the street blown up to a larger size at staples or another copy center.
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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In our area we have large 3 ring notebooks we use for mapbooks with plastic pages so pages can be slid in and out, for our area and separtate books for other station's area we are dispatched to. If any changes come up we just pull out a page and replace it with a new one. We have hydrant or drafting locations marked by street address. Any distance from a street to a building to know how much hose may have to be laidout to reach.
Any hazard buildings or locations.
Since our area is a urban area we don't mark every house so we just mark a begining house number, hydrant and last house number on a street. If we have a cul de sac every house number is marked.
Our county chief now wants to add maps with topography to show details of area because of major brush fires we had close to residential areas showing ravines, hills and valleies. This would allow crews to know where they can go and how to attack.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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First off, don't reinvent the wheel here. Just accessing existing utility company maps is a good start. You need water to do your job, and having a complete understanding of your district is paramount to complete your departments mission. So find your water mains and hydrant locations, pumping stations, static water sources, etc.
Addressing is a given, and ensuring that residents display addresses can be enhanced by marking fire hydrant locations using road reflectors glued to the asphalt or elevated markers that give you landmarks at night when looking for rural locations.
Figure out and identify standardized map symbols to ensure consistency. There is so much to do, my fingers won't last long typing this stuff out for you but... What I have given you so far is a start. Get in touch with me when you have caught up to this point.
CBz
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Permalink Reply by Marc Hansen on
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When we did our street indexs we listed driving directions from our station to each road in the township. House numbers were listed with certain streets due to different ways to access them. At the end of the directions were the nearest house number to the hydrants, if no hydrants in area TANKER was printed. Since you have a large area to cover another option to consider would be gps units and you can program hydrant locations in as points of interest(POI) that show up when you are on the way. If you look into gps also do the street index to give to your mutual aid departments and to keep in your trucks. GPS has been known to be wrong a time or two, but they also will help if your going to assist an mutual aid department.
Which ever way you go check with your dispatch center and see if they have a list of all house numbers and streets. When we updated our index the 911 center had streets programmed that we didn't know of and we gave them a list of streets they had no knowledge of.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Richardson on
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You could check to see if your county has a GIS department (our is a part of the auditors Department). They should have some very good maps and can customize them to your needs. Our maps show street names, street numbers by block, and hydrant locations. They printed some draft copies for us, we went out and verified hydrant locations, and street names, then they printed up final copies for us. We were able to put together a book for our whole county so if we provide mutual aid to a department that is not an immediate neighbor we will have maps of their jurisdiction. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Dale Loberger on
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Check with your local government to see if they have a GIS group to help you. They can automate the process for you and provide custom layers to the map. Most GIS software applications can even produce a map book automatically. Supporting you helps them justify their position, so reach out to them.
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Permalink Reply by AJ on
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Thank you everyone for all your ideas they all are helpful. I hope there are more to come. By the way what does GIS stand for?
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Sorry, GIS is "Geographic Information System" and generally refers to software but many local governments have a group by that name as well. It is sometimes within the Planning Department or Assessor's Office. Some jurisdictions even have a GIS group with the Police or Fire Department specifically to handle mapping related requests for those services. Beyond printed maps, GIS can provide analytical support for both strategic planning or pre-planning as well as tactical operations. The industry leader is Esri and they have a web page dedicated to Fire/Rescue and EMS at http://www.esri.com/industries/public-safety/fire-rescue-ems/index.....
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