Traverse City FD, covers the area of Traverse City, which sits right on the Michigan river and during tourist seasons, the crowds can go up to 200,000 people. This busy department needed a better way to communicate across their departments to all personnel.
The First Arriving dashboards were installed late 2018 and all three stations are fully equipped. Fire Chief Jim Tuller said the dashboards have really benefited the department and have made his job much easier.
“It saves me a ton of work. I don’t have an administrative assistant so it’s been very handy in getting information out.” Tuller claims the department has eliminated the need for paper announcements.
A function of the dashboards that has really benefitted TCFD is the integration with Active 911. This displays addresses, drive time and street closures and helps the department respond efficiently to calls.
Many of the applications displayed onto the dashboards are easily updated online so information about street closures are accurate and can be updated in real-time.
“What worked out was the airport station has an application that shows flight arrivals and departures. We were able to link that to our dashboards. This background information helps us be ready for what might happen.”
First Arriving Dashboards have been able to have a positive impact on TCFD’s situational awareness, and the department is running more smoothly as a result.
