Jamestown Volunteer Fire Department
Planning Thoughts
As we seem to be accruing more trucks and equipment I have started thinking about how we are all going to learn how to use them in various real world situations. So, herein I propose a 'straw horse' set of thoughts about how we can maximize the value of our roles and responsibilities when attacking a real world event.
I have spent 40+ years developing large scale software applications and one of the tools we use is something called 'use cases'. Essentially, these are sets of situation stories telling what users do in various circumstances (eg, entering a personnel record). Each user step is defined and also the steps that describe abnormal or error situations (eg, adding data for a person not known to the system.)
So, here are some use case thoughts for our world:
We basically have two things to think about: 1) Situations, and 2) Resources. Situations are calls for assistance and Resources are what we can bring to the party.
Situations:
These are what we are called to do: fix situational problems: fires, floods, medical aid, traffic control, etc. For our purposes we need to know certain things about a situation:
- Location - where do we need to go.
- Status - what is going on that is a problem.
Resources:
These are what we offer to the public as we respond to a request for assistance, a situation. Resources fall into three categories:
- People - who can do the work.
- Equipment - the manual tools of the trade.
- Trucks - how we get to the location.
Basic thoughts:
- For Location - use a map of our coverage area and break it down into defined zones: Main St, Lower Main, Mesa, 15th, Ward Rd, etc. Each zone will have detailed data describing what water resources are available, how to best get there with various trucks, where to park, etc. Some of these may vary based on the status of the situation.
- For Status - defines what is going on: structure fire, smoke sighted, gas smells, etc. Also, defines the environmental circumstances: structure in a clearing, structure in grass, structure in the woods, fire in grass, fire in trees, etc.
- For People - who is available, what skills do they have, certifications, distance from location/firehall, estimated time of arrival. PPE available, etc.
- For Equipment - ladders, extinguishers, shovels, Pulaskis, water packs, etc.
- For Trucks - the obvious, defining the best roles for each truck, time to arrive at the location, ease of access to each zone, capacities, etc.
So now we need to define a set of scenarios for each zone, for each situation type, and the availability of the various resources. In particular, we may have trucks out of service, or trucks with duplicated capabilities, we may not have people available for a truck for a particular situation type, so what do we do?
I am imagining a table of tasks for each zone for each major situation type and that indicates how the resources are applied. Example:
Departure Sequence second first third, if required Parking location Close to hydrant Close to location Actions Attach hose to hydrant Pull quick attack hose Attach feeder hose to 4250 Engage pump from tank Attach 2 1/2" hose to discharge ports. Spray water Spray water Accept water from 4201