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Responding to Incidents at Night - Using Maps or Computers or Both?
Responding to an incident at night and looking for an address, at least for me always seemed to be a little more difficult, not being able to rely on physical landmarks as much. Perhaps I am old school, but my question here focuses on how you respond to an incident as both the apparatus driver and the company officer .
The firefighter's role in the actual response does not come to play... Unless of course both the Engineer and Captain are off shift and the firefighter is the only "regular" person assigned to the station, making his or her knowledge of the area paramount.
When you are dealing with responding to an incident, reading the map book at night, trying not to blind the driver and dealing with small print always seemed like a nightmare sometimes when the response time was minimal. Couple this with looking for addresses at night that seem to be non existent sometimes in the rural areas and actually finding the address and right house and you end up getting an acid stomach and headache... But now... we have computers in engines! One thing I can guarantee about computers is that just like a cell phone, when you need it the most, it won't work... No coverage, dead battery, etc.
One of the coolest things I saw on an engine company cab roof liner (right seat) was a map that had been pasted to cardboard, laminated and attached with velcro to the ceiling. The map was only intended to cover the engines first-in district and took away the need to open a map book and look at connecting pages. Company officers could easily see hydrants, hundred blocks, target hazards or whatever one has on their first in map. Having the map laminated is very helpful if you have to evacuate or shelter in place, create divisions, etc. What makes this a helpful tool is that it is always available and everyone knows where it is. It's also helpful for those optically challenged with seeing things in fine print... While this may come off as being totally old school. The practice of making a larger map, pasting your map pages together into one single map gives you redundancy in case your computer terminal goes down and makes it an easy tool to use for your company officers.
Of course the driving at night thing, using a map light to read the map does not go away with the roof mounted map. Not to state the obvious, but use of a red light in the cab minimizes the glare and blinding factor of a white light... Kind of like a dark room or submarine. This is an easy fix that makes reading things at night a little less distracting to the driver.
The one thing that I did not mention nor ask was my assumption that all firefighters actually memorize their first in district, making maps not really necessary as far as finding things. Locating hydrants, and FDC's... that's another story and using the now inexpensive Garmin GPS systems for your automobile, always an option but who has the time?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Wade Seely on
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Knowing your district is always the best, but like you said the FDC's and hydrants are another matter. He have both a map book and computer in most of our rigs. the computers are great with their mapping, and pre plan info; but they do seem to have issues with working all of the time. In the city limits it is usually not a problem; however the rural areas can be a bit trickier with addressing and access roads, most of the guys know their way around but a few have issues when it comes to the county addresses.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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The one thing that I did not mention nor ask was my assumption that all firefighters actually memorize their first in district, making maps not really necessary as far as finding things.
That would be my first response. While maps, MDTs, GPS etc are all helpful, nothing beats knowing the streets and district.
There still may be times you will have to check a reference, but knowing the main roads and cross streets can help immensely. Along with that is knowing a couple different ways too. I was riding backwards on the ambo (rare staffing day for us) and got a fire call returning from the hospital, Looking up front, I told the driver a better, shorter, way to get where we needed to go because he had a brain fart and was going to go how he would if leaving the station.
We do have both MDTs with mapping and street books as well as layout books on each rig. Mapping works great because it will show what side of the street the address is on and helps for those obscure, tucked away, streets that just don't readily click at 3am. Same holds for going into another district or even MA. The mapping is definately great for the MA aspect since we don't do it as often.
If looking at a street book or layout book, we do have a red/white, reading lamp on the officer's side which doesn't emit much light to distract the driver, but enables viewing of the book. In the end, it helps to know the area first and foremost and to rely on subsequent aides as necessary, but be proficient in the use of several means.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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The computers are nice, but make sure you tone down the brightness at night. It can quickly wreck both the driver's and officer's night vision and make driving much more dangerous, especially at night.
We have a large touch-screen flat panel in the rear of our B/C ride, and it's so bright that we got a flag drape for it so that it doesn't blind following traffic.
It adds the coolness factor of a lit flag to the rig, too.
A good option for the apparatus 3-ring binder map book is to print it on slime-green paper instead of white and use a blacklight (UV) instead of red. One of our engine captains came up with this idea and it really works.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Some people take a blacklight into motel and hotel rooms to confirm or deny the presence of bodily fluids, and yes, this is VERY gross to even think about.
Ok, the slime green paper thing, that's out there but worth taking a look at...
How big is the black light, and is it a 12-volt model or built in to the rig?
You've heard my posts before championing use of blacklight's for detecting bio-materials like blood, bodily fluids, urine... all potential infection contact points that are invisible without the use of a blacklight.Is the bathroom really clean?
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Memorizing your first due is fine - but you're not always going to be in your first due.
In the age of AVL and GPS, you'll be moved around to cover places that are not in your first due. An onboard mapping system is essential.
A computer-based mapping system, backed up with a paper system that works when the computer system is down is better.
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Oh, so now you're looking for body fluids in the Captain's seat and finding how to get to the next scene at the same time? Gross! :-)
But serously, it's a 12VDC flourescent tube model that plugs into a cigarrette lighter/power socket source.
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