This mobile app will change how Philly firefighters protect the city

A new internal mobile app that gives Philadelphia’s firefighters access to real-time data will change how they protect the city, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said, and it will hopefully help protect them, too.

“The first line of defense is not the hose line,” Ayers said: it’s all the information about a fire and its surroundings.

When firefighters access the city-built app on the computers inside their fire trucks, they’ll be able to see:

• 3D and aerial images of the building in question, plus the surrounding neighborhood, which can help them decide how to attack the fire.
• if the building in question has received any violations (Did the city mark it imminently dangerous? Is it scheduled for demolition?)
• the locations of other fire trucks around the city, since each of them are GPS-enabled
• where the nearby fire hydrants and water mains are located, which can help them decide which hydrants to use when fighting the fire

Previously, firefighters had access to this data, pulled from many city sources, but it wasn’t all available in one place and it wasn’t immediately accessible. Firefighters would have to call the fire communications office to get certain kinds of information.

“This is the first app that takes [the data] off the desktop and onto the mobile device,” said Kevin Thomas, the Police Department’s director of research and analysis who helped build the app.

Aside from helping firefighters in the field, the app will be useful in training and creating on-site strategy, Ayers said. He also believes it will help keep firefighters safe, a comment that carries weight, given the tragic deaths of three firefighters since 2012.

The app launched last week to one battalion of firefighters, who will beta-test it and provide feedback to the developers who built the tool. Since city developers built the app, they’ll be able to tailor it to the feedback they receive, Thomas said.

The creation of the app is also a testament to the city’s data and its accessibility, at least internally. The app uses data from sources like Licenses & Inspections and the Water Department, as well as the city’s aerial and oblique images of Philadelphia.

Thomas built the tool with Paul Woodruff, the city developer behind the fire hydrant app that helps get fire hydrants fixed one week faster.