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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on March 15, 2010 at 1:22pm

The area that I worked, and I say that using past tense now that I have been retired for a couple of days... was primarily rural with no real maps showing accurate locations and hazards. In my situation, there were no preplans in existence but yet we had several structures to protect... The answer, make your own... and so I did. Including custom map symbology and developing a way to move from map page (preplan) to map page. This is not a structure preplan, which may be the focus of your discussion Paul, but in my case, with multi-million dollar homes sitting along the coast and my being the first in company officer... I didn't want to get lost and I wanted to know ahead of time where the water resources were...

Please note that all the hydrants in the private system were identified and the GPM for each hydrant is included on the map. Other things like local surfing terminology for surf spots is also included to facilitate knowing where things are for mutual aid or engines responding to an incident who are not familiar with the area.

You can also determine whether or not to take a brush truck on a medical response for example if the incident occurs in an area that requires 'off road' driving... Prior to this map, the company officer would have been surprised trying to gain access to the emergency scene in a Type I engine when a Type III is the only resources that could actually make access due to bad roads or mud issues from heavy rainfall.

Also note that on the top of the map, a smaller version of the site maps is provided and highlighted to let you know where you are on the map. I'll look for other fixed facility site maps if you are interested. You may not know this, but I am the one who authored the mapping standards for the Uniform Fire Code back in the 80's when things were being updated. I guess this makes me kind of an expert... lol

Here's what I came up with... Hope it helps you out with your class Paul. Remember, information is power.

CBz

Note: I just noticed after posting the graphic map preplan that there was sensitive information on it. I need to do some arts and crafts and will repost the graphics after I make a couple of changes... In fact, what I will do is post a discussion that includes symbology and theory. Might as well make it into a class...

"Failure to prepare is preparing for failure... Be prepared..." and this includes making killer preplan maps...

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Permalink Reply by Rusty Mancini on March 15, 2010 at 3:11pm

We have had pre-plans for our coverage area for about four years now, we also train with them! These are a must, especially for commercial manufacturing buildings. Also it's good to have the MSDS info with them as well. You don't want to be behind the eight ball when xxit hits the fan!

Like Capt.B says, be prepared!

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Permalink Reply by Wade Seely on March 15, 2010 at 3:19pm

We are working on pre planning all business in our district, and have most of the larger/more hazardous ones done. As of righ now we do not train with them other than presenting a power point on all of them at district meetings. We are currently installing MDT's in our rigs and will load pre-plan info on to them for use on calls.

TCSS

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Permalink Reply by Roy Walker on March 16, 2010 at 4:43pm

We have developed preplans and use them in training ,although we are far from finished we do have them in place for most of our district. Especially helpful to our department is that in addition to noting hazards,water supply etc. we are trying to make note of any special call resources and where they can be obtained. It's one less headache when things are going south

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Permalink Reply by Reg Mathis on March 17, 2010 at 12:22am

Yes, we do them anually and use them a couple of times a year for training.

Reg

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