Use Fire Incident Dashboard

The Fire Incident Dashboard solution delivers a set of capabilities that help you source incident records from computer-aided dispatch or records management systems, visualize fire and EMS incidents, and monitor trends or patterns.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard 1710 provides a benchmark that defines the key performance objectives to be met for responses times to fire suppression and emergency medical service calls. The performance objectives include the alarm handling or dispatch time, turnout time, travel time and total response time. The Fire Incident Dashboard utilizes these NFPA standards to help fire command staff monitor and manage responses within their jurisdictions.

Note:

Use your organization's data or configured apps to follow these workflows.

Understand recent trends

The Fire Incident Dashboard includes the ability to measure 90th percentile responses using gauges for each of the NFPA performance objectives. These gauges can be used to understand recent performance trends for each station, response zone, company and shift. The 90th percentile standard is a way to objectively measure response times for each category within 90 percent of all responses.

In this topic, you’ll assume the role of a fire chief who will use the Fire Incident Dashboard to explore recent trends in response times for fire and emergency medical service (EMS) calls.

Explore response time to incidents

Follow these steps to explore the fire department’s overall response-time performance.

1. In a browser, sign in to your ArcGIS organization, and then browse to the Fire Incident Dashboard solution.
2. View the Fire Incident Dashboard app.
3. On the left, in the filter panel, click the Call date drop-down list and choose Last 30 days.

   The map filters to display all responses from the past 30 days in the entire service area.

4. On the bottom, review each gauge to explore the 90th percentile performance for alarm handling or dispatch time, turnout time, travel time, and total response time.

   Note:

   Values in the green or blue range are within or below the acceptable range for that metric. Values in the red range are outside of the acceptable range for that metric. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard is shown below each corresponding gauge. For example, the NFPA standard turnout time for EMS response is 60 seconds, and it is 80 seconds for fire suppression.
5. At the bottom of the dashboard, click Responding Company to review the number of responses by each company or unit.

   You can see which responding companies had the highest number of responses in the last 30 days.

6. Click any column in the chart to see the location of responses for the responding company on the map and review the 90th percentile performance in each gauge.

   Tip:

   Click the same company again to clear the chart or click another company to compare responses.

7. At the bottom of the dashboard, click the Response Zone tab to see a bar chart of each fire station's response zone or first due zone.
8. In the chart, hover over the bar for a fire station to see the number of responses by each station within the response zone.

   Hovering over one fire station's bar allows you to determine if companies from different stations responded to calls in the selected fire station's response zone.

9. At the bottom of the dashboard, click the Response by Date tab to see any dates when responses were above the NFPA standard for each performance objective.
The red line indicates the NFPA performance objective and allows you to visualize the date and time of any responses that exceeded the standard.
10. In the Total response time chart, click a point above the red line to see the date and time of that response.

Compare fire response times by fire station

Response-time performance may vary depending on the station or unit responding. You can compare response time using the station and call type filters.

Follow these steps to examine the response-time performance for each station.

1. From the Station drop-down list, choose a fire station.

   The map and gauge elements filter to reflect only the incidents occurring by that fire station. This filter allows you to see where companies from that station responded and compare the response times to the performance objectives.

2. Click the Call type drop-down list and choose each call type one by one, noticing the differences in response-type performance for each call type.
3. After you finish, reset all filters.
4. Repeat this process with the incidents in other fire stations to make a data-driven decision on each station’s performance.

Examine performance by response zone

Response-time performance varies depending on the where the call is located. Many times, a company may be dispatched to a call in another station's response zone. This can happen either because they are closer or the first due response company is responding to another call. You can filter responses to see which companies responded to calls in each response zone. This filter can help you identify performance issues caused by travel delays to another response zone.

Follow these steps to examine response-time performance by response zone.

1. From the Response zone drop-down list, choose a response zone.
2. Click the Call date drop-down list and select Year to Date.

   The map updates, showing year-to-date responses for the selected zone only, and the 90th Percentile Performance gauges update to reflect the selected responses.

3. At the bottom of the dashboard, click the Responding Company tab.

   Note:

   The chart shows the number of responses for each company within the selected response zone. Any responses by companies from other stations are indicated by the name of the responding company.

4. Click the column for one of the responding companies from another fire station to see how the 90th Percentile Performance gauges change.
5. Click the same responding company to remove the filter.
6. At the bottom of the dashboard, click the Response Zone tab to compare the number of responses for each company within the selected response zone.
7. At the bottom of the dashboard, click the Response by Date tab to examine the dates when the response times exceeded the standard with the selected response zone.
8. Reset all filters when you are done examining response-time performance by response zone.

Examine performance outliers

The Fire Incident Dashboard includes the ability to examine performance outliers and get details for those outliers. This information can be used to address any performance issues with the responding companies.

In this topic, you’ll assume the role of a fire chief who will use the Fire Incident Dashboard to examine responses that exceed the performance standards for fire and emergency medical service (EMS) calls.

Identify performance outliers

To address performance outliers, it is necessary to identify them. This process starts by reviewing performance for each station and then investigating which responses exceeded the standards.

1. On the left, in the filter panel, click the Call date drop-down list and choose Year to Date.

   The map now displays all responses in the current year for the entire service area.

2. From the Station drop-down list, choose a fire station.
3. At the bottom of the dashboard, in the Responding Company chart, select a responding company to review the 90th Percentile Performance gauges.
4. Click another responding company to compare response performance, and then continue until you find a company that has exceeded the performance standard for the selected station and call date.
5. Click the Response by Date tab to see the dates when the selected company exceeded the performance standard.
6. In the Total response time chart, click a point above the red line to get the date and time for that response.

Inspect performance outliers

After you have identified the performance outliers you can inspect each one to determine the cause and response information.

1. Near the bottom right corner of the dashboard, click the Total response time tab.

   The performance outliers for the selected company will be listed for each performance objective. Each outlier is listed with the call date and time, company, and shift. The response time displayed in seconds.

2. Under the list, click the response for the date identified previously.

   A pop-up opens for the selected performance outlier.

3. Review the response information in the pop-up for the selected performance outlier.

   Tip:

   The NFIRS code in the pop-up's banner refers to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) code. This code is used to identify the type of incident.

4. Notice the fire station, company and shift information for the selected response.
5. Review the address and cause for the incident.
6. In the pop-up, scroll to review the response details including the response phases and incident time.
7. Repeat step 2 through 6 for each additional performance outlier by clicking on the Alarm handling time, Turnout time, and Travel Time tab.
This information can be used to discuss the performance issue with the responding company.