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Configure Pre-Incident Planning

In this topic

  1. Load data
  2. Modify station list
  3. Configure planning workflows
  4. Share pre-incident plans

Pre-Incident Planning can be used to inventory fire pre-incident plans and understand hazards and risks that affect responding personnel and building occupants.

In this topic, you’ll learn how to configure the Pre-Incident Planning solution to meet specific needs in your organization.

Load data

The Pre-Incident Planning solution uses your buildings data to assign, collect and use Pre-Incident Plans. Your building polygons and attributes will be loaded into the FirePreIncidentPlans layer provided with the solution. Loading your data into this pre-defined layer ensures the Pre-Incident Planning applications work without additional configuration.

The source of the buildings data can be a building footprints layer with attributes from your assessor's office or another source. Your organization may have footprints for all buildings, but you may want to focus on industrial, educational, health care and other buildings and exclude residential buildings. After loading building data, you can update the FirePreIncidentPlans layer periodically as development occurs in your community.

Note:

Site address information on each building is extremely valuable and used to organize pre-incident plans throughout the solution.

Load data from a shapefile

Complete the steps below to load your building data into the FirePreIncidentPlan layer:

Tip:

If you do not have building data available for your community then skip this workflow and use the Load data from ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World workflow.

  1. Create a .zip file of a shapefile of the building data.
  2. Verify you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the FirePreIncidentPlans feature layer that is included with the solution.
  3. Open this feature layer and find the Pre-Incident Plans sublayer.

    This layer contains that polygons that are used to assign pre-incident plans.

  4. From the item page, click Update Data > Append Data to Layer.
  5. Click Choose File, browse to the .zip file containing the shapefile with the building data, and click Open.
  6. Click Upload and Continue.
  7. Click the Choose the layer to update drop-down arrow and choose Pre-Incident Plans.
  8. Uncheck Update existing features.
  9. Click Show field matching to map the fields from the file to the fields in layer.

    If you have address information, matching the fulladdr field will be especially useful as you utilize the solution.

  10. Click Apply Updates.
    Tip:

    To make additional updates to a hosted feature layer, see Append data to layers.

  11. Repeat the same process to load the FireDistricts boundaries.
    Tip:

    If you have existing site considerations assets (physical elements, water supplies, fire protection systems, hazardous material and occupancies), they can also be loaded using the same process as above.

Load data from ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World

Note:
This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed in order to work with the solution.

Your organization may not have footprints for buildings defined. In that case, you may make use of ArcGIS Living Atlas to load a USA Structures layer provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This layer may not have all address information such as addresses or safety information, but you can add it when assigning pre-incident plans.

Complete the steps below to load ArcGIS Living Atlas building data into the FirePreIncidentPlan layer:

  1. Start ArcGIS Pro and sign into your ArcGIS organization.
  2. Click Add Data.
  3. Browse to Living Atlas and search for USA Structures. Add the USA Structures layer.
  4. Click Add Data.
  5. Browse to your content and add the FirePreIncidentPlans layer.
  6. Zoom in and use the Selection tools to select the USA Structures you would like to load.
    Tip:

    Manually select the geographic area and use Select By Attributes along with the OCC_CLS field to select all non-residential structures. Note, not all buildings in this layer will have this attribute.

  7. Click the Analysis menu and choose Tools.
  8. Search for the Append tool.
  9. For Input Datasets, choose USA_Structures.
  10. For Target Dataset, choose FirePreIncidentPlans\Pre-Incident Plans.
  11. For Field Matching Type, choose Use the field map to reconcile field differences.
    Tip:

    The USA Structures layer may not contain address or other building information for the entire US. You can edit these attributes in the Pre-Incident Plan Manager app after loading data.

  12. Click Run to Append the data.
    Tip:
    If the ArcGIS Living Atlas content does not provide what you need or you need to update buildings after you have loaded them, refer to the Add new pre-incident plans topic to add plans manually.

Modify station list

Note:
This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed in order to work with the solution.

The Pre-Incident Plan Manager app uses fire station boundaries to organize planning workflows. Assignments are emailed to the individual stations and tracked throughout the planning life cycle. The Pre-Incident Plan Manager and Pre-Incident Plan Dashboard displays metrics that demonstrate how fire stations are performing. When you deploy the solution, Station 1 through Station 10 is configured by default. Your organization may have additional stations or utilize a different naming convention.

Complete the steps below to modify the list of stations:

  1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the FirePreIncidentPlans feature layer.
  2. From the item page, click the Data tab.
  3. Click Fields.
  4. Click the Assigned Station field.
  5. Click Edit next to List of Values (Domain).
  6. Optionally, click Add.
  7. Type the additional stations in the Label and Code text boxes.
  8. Optionally, click Delete to remove a station.
  9. Optionally, drag the station to a new location in the list to reorder the list.
  10. Click Save.

Configure planning workflows

The Pre-Incident Planning solution can be configured to align with current workflows and business practices used in your fire agency. Reinspection periods can be adjusted, site visit history maintained, and the Pre-Incident Plan Manager app can be configured so new buildings can be added to your inventory.

Adjust reinspection periods

Note:
This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed in order to work with the solution.

Many fire agencies revisit, or reinspect, pre-incident plans every calendar year. These reinspection periods are used in the Pre-Incident Plan Manager and Pre-Incident Plan Dashboard to visualize when plans are past due. If your fire agency uses a different time span, you can adjust the reinspection periods in each of the apps.

Complete the steps below to adjust reinspection periods:

  1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Pre-Incident Plan Manager app.
  2. From the item page, click Edit.
  3. Click the Filter Assignments widget.
  4. Click the Date for reinspection filter.
  5. In the SQL Expression, update 365 to your time span.
  6. Click Save, and then click Publish to update the Pre-Incident Plan Manager.
  7. Next, browse to the Pre-Incident Plan Dashboard.
  8. From the item page, click Edit Dashboard.
  9. Highlight the Upcoming Reinspections Due Within widget and click Configure.
  10. Next to the Upcoming Workload layer click Edit.
  11. In the Arcade expression update the 365 value to your time span.
  12. Click Done.
  13. Highlight the Reinspection list widget and click Configure.
  14. Modify the filter to your time span.
  15. Click Done.
  16. Save the Dashboard.

Maintain site visit history

Note:
This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed in order to work with the solution.

The Insurance Services Office (ISO) requires historical records on a subset of pre-incident plans you collect. To optimize firefighter field workflows, the Pre-Incident Planning solution does not require site visit history be collected by default but the Pre-Incident Plan Site Visit map can be configured to record site visit history.

Complete the steps below to maintain site visit history:

  1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Pre-Incident Plan Site Visit map.
  2. Click Add and add the FirePreIncidentPlans_mobile layer.
    Tip:

    Adding this layer will add a the pre-incident plan layer that is already in the map, but also add a table to store site visits.

  3. Remove the top Pre-Incident Plans layer that is redundant.
  4. Optionally, set the forms for the Site Visits to collect the current day for sitevisitdate.
  5. Save the Pre-Incident Plan Site Visit map.
  6. Open ArcGIS Field Maps and sign in to your ArcGIS organization.
  7. Tap Pre-Incident Plan Site Visit to open the map.
  8. Tap a plan (building) to edit it.
  9. Tap Site Visits. Optionally, fill out related notes.
  10. Click Submit.
  11. Open the Pre-Incident Plan Viewer app to view related site visits.

Add new pre-incident plans

Note:
This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed in order to work with the solution.

In some cases you may not have a building layer to start the assignment process. You may also need to add new buildings to the map as development occurs. The Pre-Incident Plan Manager app can be configured and used by pre-incident plan program managers to create new building features and assign pre-incident plans to those buildings.

Complete the following steps to add new pre-incident plans as development occurs:

  1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Pre-Incident Plan Manager app.
  2. On the item page, click Edit.
  3. Highlight the Edit Assignment widget.
  4. In the Content panel change the editing option from Attribute only to Geometry and attribute.
  5. Click Yes in the warning dialogue.
  6. Click New editable layer.
  7. Click Select data, and highlight the Pre-Incident Plans layer.
  8. Click Save, and then click Publish to update the Pre-Incident Plan Manager.
  9. Draw new assigned Pre-Incident Plans.

Share pre-incident plans

Note:
This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed in order to work with the solution.

The Pre-Incident Plan Viewer can be used by firefighters to view pre-incident plans and related site considerations. Pre-incident plan information collected in the solution can also be accessed in Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems that support the integration of feature layers.

Access Pre-Incident Plan Viewer via URL parameter

The Pre-Incident Plan Viewer can accessed via a URL parameter that controls how the application behaves. For example, a URL parameter could tell the Pre-Incident Plan Viewer to zoom to a given site address and display pre-incident plan and site considerations for that address.

Complete the following steps to open the Pre-Incident Plan Viewer and zoom to a specific site address:

  1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Pre-Incident Plan Viewer app.
  2. Open the Pre-Incident Plan Viewer.
  3. Click on your browser URL and add the following parameter to zoom to a site address &address={enter your address}
    For example, the address 123 West Main Street would have the following URL: https://myorganizationname.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/sidebar/index.html?appid=123abc123abc123abc&address=123%20West%20Main%20Street
    Tip:

    Once you identify the correct parameter for your fire agency, work with your systems administrator to construct the URL parameter so the Pre-Incident Plan Viewer can be opened from CAD system.

Access Pre-Incident Planning layers

Some CAD systems consume feature layers and can access the Pre-Incident Planning layers directly in their applications.

Complete the following steps to create a Pre-Incident Planning layer view that can be accessed in your CAD system:

  1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the FirePreIncidentPlans feature layer.
  2. Click Create View Layer.
  3. Choose all defaults and name the layer FirePreIncidentPlans_CAD.
  4. Click Create.
  5. Click the Settings tab.
  6. Scroll down and check Enable Sync to access this information from a mobile device that may have intermittent internet connection.
  7. Click the Overview tab.
  8. Repeat the above steps for the SiteConsiderations layer.
  9. Share the feature layer view URLs with your CAD administrator.

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In this topic
  1. Load data
  2. Modify station list
  3. Configure planning workflows
  4. Share pre-incident plans