Greenacres Fire Rescue in Florida has harnessed First Arriving’s dashboard technology to improve communication not only within their own department, but also with their city leadership. By installing a dashboard in their city manager’s office, the fire department has made everything it does visible in real time – from emergency calls, to training, to staff announcements, and more – creating an impact that a traditional report just can’t beat.
“If you really want to sell the fire department, you have to put a First Arriving dashboard in your city manager’s office,” said Fire Chief Brian Fuller. “Hands down, that has been one of the best things that I’ve done as fire chief in my eight years here.”
Located in central Palm Beach County, Greenacres Fire Rescue serves more than 39,000 residents citywide, as well as more than 2,000 residents within the City of Atlantis, and thousands of additional visitors who come through each day.
Fuller discovered dashboards by First Arriving a few years ago when he visited his former fire department, Palm Beach Fire Rescue, for a meeting.
When he saw dashboards on display for the first time, “I was just amazed,” he said. “I said wow, I had to have that at my department. I asked the then-chief how to get it, and how they implemented it, how they like it, and what the firefighters think of it, and it checked all the boxes.”
Before installing a dashboard system at Greenacres Fire Rescue, the department relied on word of mouth and email for internal communication, but they weren’t finding it effective. In comparison, “This has just been phenomenal,” Fuller said. They now have dashboards installed in each of their stations, their admin office, and the city manager’s office.
“Still to this day,” he added, “even after having it for a couple of years, we still love the new technology and new things that come out, and new ways to do things. It’s just been fantastic the way it integrates with all of our other software programs.”
There is a particular feature that initially sold Fuller on the dashboards, and continues to stand out.
“Without a doubt, the response time dials,” he said. “I know how competitive firefighters are, and knowing that when they saw their response time percentage, that that would cause them to get out the door quicker, you know, what fire chief doesn’t want better response times?”
Additional favorites include on-screen notifications for vehicle issues, and notifications for staff members with assignments due.
“It’s a really good stimulator for them to go ahead and get that done to get their name off the board,” Fuller said.
He and his assistant chief also keep their dashboards current with announcements, training, and events. “We’ll put a QR code on it and the personnel can register right there from the screen,” he said.
The fire department has also been able to work more smoothly with their city’s Human Resources department thanks to the dashboards, Fuller added, because they use it to prompt annual health insurance enrollments, etc.
“HR really loves it too because we’re putting all those kinds of requirements up on the slide shows,” he said.
All of these features come back around to keeping not only the firefighters informed, but their city manager as well, Fuller noted. It’s one thing for city leaders to know the fire department is busy, and another for them to be able to see that for themselves and to feel invested in outcomes in real time—as well as to get the personal connection that comes from seeing staff updates such as birthdays and new baby announcements.
“I tell every fire chief that has this system, if you don’t have this in your city manager’s office, you’re not doing yourself any justice,” Fuller said.
