1. Using GIS for Fire Department
ISO Review
By: William Rockwell
iMAUG 11-18-10
2. Project Outline
•Vernon Hills provides GIS services to 3
Fire Districts, with a 4th in the works.
•Vernon Hills is covered by 2 Fire
Protection Districts
•Countryside Fire Protection District
(91%) Vernon Hills residential
•Lincolnshire-Riverwoods Fire
Protection District
•Long Grove FPD is adjacent to
Vernon Hills
•Wauconda (pending agreement)
•Clients are charged hourly rate that
equals the cost of GIS personnel
(salary + benefits)
4. Countryside FPD Project Overview
• What is ISO and why does it matter?
– ISO (Insurance Service Office) involved in
underwriting, rating, and statistics for US
– Assigns a PPC (Public Protection Classification) to
each Fire agency as they meet National Fire
Protection standards
– PPC ranks from Level 1 (Best) to Level 10
– Better ISO score = lower homeowner insurance
– Countryside was last reviewed in 1993 (level 3)
5. Countryside FPD Project Data
Lake County Developed “in house”
• Centerlines • GPS hydrants
• Parcels (for CFPD) • Georeferenced as-builts
• Fire District boundaries – Digitized water mains
– Digitized wells / pumps
• County hydrants, water
structures, and mains • Disparate attributes
• Aerials (2008) • Created network with
Network Analyst (60 day)
– Routes
– Polygons
6. Countryside FPD Project
• GIS needs
– Map 13 individual water systems
• Display data cleanly for inspector
– Inspector used maps to go on-site and test / verify equipment
• Show water sources - Wells / pump houses, GPM, JAWA
interconnects, tanks, # of hydrants, water mains & sizes
• GPS hydrants and digitize water mains
– some systems were hand drawn maps
– Stats on number of hydrants, who owns them
7. Countryside FPD Project
• GIS needs continued
– Analyze wet and dry fire hydrant area coverage by
road miles (network analyst)
• 4,000 ft road buffer dry hydrants
• 1,000 ft road buffer wet hydrants
• 1,000 ft road buffer all hydrants
• Calculate area of district covered by each
– Calculate road distance from station to structure
fires, average response time
– Land use, 3+ story buildings, other random maps
8. Countryside FPD Project
• GIS needs continued
– Updated 10+ year old map books for fire / EMS
vehicles
• 159 pages
– Made all maps viewable in ArcReader